


Extra Hour

by TuckerInLaw



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: AI, Adventure, Android, Androids, Hurt/Comfort, Mystery, Science Fiction, TARDIS is missing for a time (Ep.1)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-09
Updated: 2019-03-01
Packaged: 2019-09-15 02:42:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 22,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16925019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TuckerInLaw/pseuds/TuckerInLaw
Summary: [AU adventure series]First episode, Extra Hour: The Doctor is falling on the city called Lidunburgh and she has no choice but fall down. Destined to meet each other, Alex starts to notice strange things happening in her city when the Doctor comes into her life. The majority number of senior citizens is not one of them. [Finished]Second episode, That Man Who Stole David: Something strange indeed happened on trans-Siberian express in 1973. Something that could have caused a worldwide conflict between the West and the East. Something that would never be published on any media. Never. Something only David Bowie knows. [In progress]





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so I've been thinking here for some time what would happen to the Doctor after the end of Twice Upon a Time (apart from the obvious that might happen, of course. Because frankly falling from the TARDIS without any cushions is quite risky. But it's just my opinion, I might be wrong, sure thing, I'm only human). But as I (and you too, my friends) have seen many cliffhangers like this before, I assumed that the scenario might be sort of like this.
> 
> Ah yes, one precaution, or a note, call it as you like. I don't know new Doctor's companions, their names don't mean anything to me, their appearance, their race, they beliefs, their sex, their sexuality – same. So here I'm using 100% original one-episode character called… hmmm… let it be Alex.
> 
> One more thing. As everyone on forums is obsessed with new Doctor's body (ah, human obsession with gender) and not concentrated on the only question that has been nagging me since Christmas; the city the Doctor is falling on will be Lidunburgh (100% original green city).
> 
> Enjoy the story!
> 
> P.S. To get the better idea of how Jodie walks and talks watch Adult Life Skills. Broadchurch is good but not enough.
> 
> P.P.S. This note had been written far before the series was broadcasted. The fic was originally posted on FanFiction and today is the day I decided to post it here too. Enjoy!

A woman in her early thirties looked at her dog with a desperate sigh which can only make a lonely woman with erratic work, existential crisis and two extra kilos she couldn't lose whatever she did. The dog squeezed its eyes, laying on its mat unmovingly.

"Okay, I got it, you don't want to go anywhere, you just want to sleep. That's fine for me, I respect your doggy's right. Then I'll just go for a walk _alone_. Bye, Alvin." She grabbed her backpack with only important stuff, that is a small packet of crisps, notebook and a pen, and got out of her house. When she looked around to close the door she saw that Alvin changed his mind and followed her. Argh, what a dog.

Fresh late evening air shook her short wavy black hairs, and the woman accepted it with great pleasure. All day she had been indoors, looking forward to this very moment when the work was done and the customer was kind of happy. Well, he wasn't _happy_ , so she'd promised him to make another logotype _tomorrow,_ which was only in two hours.

She saw her neighbour sitting in his chair on the front porch of his house. He simply gaped at the sky, his eyes not moving, his body protected from the cold with only red sweater.

"Hi, Mr Collins! Looking for falling stars?" She saw him every evening doing the same thing, just sitting and waiting, sitting and sometimes sipping a coffee from his thermos cup. He was one of her the most favourite neighbours on the street she used to live because he didn't pretend to be a normal pensioner like the others.

"Yes, Alex." His answer was short and clear.

She glimpsed at the sky full of grey dirty clouds. No stars, no moon, not a clear spot. It wasn't the sky to look at tonight, she concluded. But with Mr Collins, it was kind of tradition to stargaze no matter what was the weather. The man just had problems with sleep, it wasn't an uncommon thing at his age after all.

"If you find one can you make one tiny wish for me?" Alex smirked sarcastically.

"No, Alex."

That was offensive somewhat. But then she thought how many times she had asked for the same when she'd been in the mood for a short evening walk. This man had been all the time here, she must be grateful he hadn't told her to get out in a rude manner.

"Ah, never mind. Anyway, good luck to you."

"Yes, Alex."

Today she wasn't going to the centre of the city and back. The dog joined her. Besides her soul wished for something completely different: peace, tranquillity and nature. Her hit was a park down the street. So, putting her earphones on, she hit the road, listening to the magical riff of the aggressive guitar and loud drums.

* * *

The air ragged the Doctor's old black worn clothes fiercely, the echo of the Tardis blowing up caught up with her when a strong wind rolled her face down. Aha, a city! Wonderful, lovely, beautiful, sparkling, stunner, great, remarkable, marvellous. Fast approaching, too. What an exciting way to start your new life!

…or end it?

Right, she reminded herself, there was no time to waste the time. The new time, the time she had only got, the time she didn't have. She wouldn't give the daleks a pleasure of smacking herself into the tarmac. She would prove herself one more time that life can be a beautiful thing sometimes and someone needed to save it. So focus for the sake of the Universe!

There was no parachute, as far as she knew the previous one hadn't worn them in his trousers, and there was no secret ultimate technique to stop her falling so drastically. Well, there was one technique, but it wasn't so secret. Though she had some doubts whether or not she would survive that.

Except, what chances there had been that she'd be falling from her Tardis? In the meaning of the Universe 100% so… No, it didn't fit. Something was wrong in her logic chain. Something…

No time!

The Doctor scanned the earth. She looked for water; no, not water, it's a bad idea to find water in the first place, she had read it somewhere, it's the same as looking for the asphalt which is not a great idea, it's a straight road to the coffin. So, not looking for it anymore.

Oh, everything was so black! A big light blob of the city was the only thing she could identify without a doubt! And she was still cooking, her eyesight was unfocused, her left and right system were a total haywire.

She tried to move herself a bit on the left to try and find something soft there but lost her balance. The wind mercilessly rolled her around, the image of the Tardis, earth, city, lights, clouds mixed all together. Calm down, calm down, calm down! She stretched out her limbs in different directions. That's right, softly, softly, catchee monkey. No need for rashness here. She gently turned to the left.

That's when she spotted a park with a convenient grove of old pines.

Oh, brilliant!

Brilliant indeed!

The Doctor dived towards there trying not to be caught up in another wind trap. She couldn't have another mistake, any wrong move and she might have two regenerations in a row. That would be just embarrassing. And wrong. And sad. And…

Focus, Doctor! You're falling!

Twenty-one seconds to land.

* * *

Alex was always mesmerised by the look of a small grove of massive pines in the park. It was something so unusual in them: the size of them was ginormous for an average scots pine, their branches compounded between each other creating a wooden roof that blocked the day and night light so it was always dark in there. They were like total aliens to this place. It was better to stay away from them.

Alex took her earphones away in the pocket and listened to the sound of nature. She was greeted with ominous silence. That was... quite unsettling frankly. There was not a living soul in the park except for her and Alvin.

But then she looked at Alvin's calmed snout that had a short fallen branch in its teeth and smiled. Nah, she was just paranoiac. Nothing wrong could ever possibly happen in her peaceful neighbourhood.

"It's just a boring city which primer population is senior citizens. Am I right, boy?"

The dog gave her a branch which she simply dismissed. "Nah, Alvin. You are a big boy. You need a bigger branch than that."

They were walking down the park paths, she was enjoying a company of small bushes and clean benches. She was watching Alvin looking for another branch but there were only small ones. She wasn't enjoying the proximity of the pine grove. There was just something eerie today about this not so little spot of the park.

"How about we go to the pond, heh?" Alex asked her dog.

The pines crackled all at once. A short loud ugh followed.

"Alvin?" She looked at her dog in alarm. What was that?!

The dog perked it's ears up. Alex tried to do the same but the evolution let her do that only for less than an inch. She didn't hear anything abnormal. Her dog apparently did.

"Alvin, no!"

Alvin didn't listen to his mistress as he suddenly rushed into the darkness she was much afraid of.

"Come back! Please, don't make me follow you!" She called him from the path but he was away ahead of her, hidden in the woods of the grove. "Please!"

She ran after him, regretting that she forgot a lead before the walk. She was out of breath before she even reached the third row of pines. "Alvin? Alvin!"

But there was not a hint that he was anywhere close. There was nothing to see. There was nothing to hear…

Except for someone clearly moaning in the depth of the woods.

Alex turned on the torch of her smartphone. Her hand was shaking violently. The shadows were playing a trick with her but she was blocking their game with constant repeating of swearing in her head. She was moving towards the only sound she could hear and frankly she didn't like that idea. But her dog might be there. He damn must be there.

"Alvin?!" She called for him again. It was funny but she could swear it was getting lighter. Probably another trick of the pine grove.

She froze on a spot. She could hear her heart beating for two. It was getting cold there and her mouth puffed a steam. And someone had just clearly groaned "no". That must be a trick of the wind. That…

"No, not Alvin. I'm not a chipmunk."

Oh my god that was a human voice! Not a voice of an evil forest spirit, a very human and a very soft voice!

Alex stepped more confidently now. A loud bang in the sky made her look up: no, what at first she'd thought was some kind of trick of light, shadow and god knew else appeared to be a hole in the wooden roof. She could see from where she stood an orange light behind a dirty cloud. Something must have fallen from the sky to do the hole like that. Something heavy. Something…

"Heya."

With a startle, Alex turned around: in the roots of pine was laying a woman. The woman gave her one last squint before she lost her consciousness.

Alex was too shocked to do anything. There was a woman. In a dark spooky grove. In strange clothes. With no reasons to be here. With… Oh, who was she kidding she matched this description as well!

"Hello?" The woman didn't answer. Oh god, if she was dead… "Hello?!" Alex leaned closer to her body.

No. No, she wasn't! Her chest was going up and down, she was alive!

The light went down giving Alex a startle.

She peeked at her phone which was – sure, how else would it be? – dead.

In the dim light, Alex could see that the woman was all in scratches and bruises, her right cheek wore a big cut. But nothing seemed to be broken and there was no blood. Probably. Apart from it, her clothes looked like they didn't fit her, and they were smelling like something burnt. Alex craned her neck up to the hole in the roof. Back to the woman. But could it be?..

Alvin barked at her somewhere on her left, though she couldn't see him. Right, they needed to get out of here, this place was just doomed. Alex put her arms around the woman's chest and dragged her toward what she thought might be the way out. The dog very soon caught up with her, proudly dragging a massive pine branch.

* * *

Dragging an unconscious body in the middle of the night was far from easy. When Alex reached her street she'd come up with thousand explanations why she was doing that. But when she reached her home it appeared that every senior citizen in her neighbourhood had finally found some cure from insomnia. There was not a person on the street except for her. Even Mr Collins was looking not up to the sky but down to the earth with his eyes completely shut.

Alex opened the lock with a key in her left hand, almost dropping the woman in her right. She pushed the door with her leg, letting the dog come in first. The couch, the last destination, was finally in her sight.

She dropped the woman without making her comfortable or anything. Her back hurt like hell, her hands weren't exactly strong, her legs were shaky. She wasn't a sporty person.

"Okay. Next step, next step. Ambulance? Ambulance. Yeah." Alex mumbled under her nose. She put her phone on the charge and went to the kitchen to put the kettle. On the way to it, in the hall, she pushed the button to turn the light but it didn't work. Then she returned and tried it again only to find out that it really didn't work. She poked her head out of the window.

There wasn't any light anywhere at all.

Her phone wasn't charging.

"You must be kidding me," Alex breathed through clenched teeth.

She came back to the living room where she left the woman on the couch. She turned her around, brought a pillow from her bedroom and put it under her head, then she get rid of her burnt oversized coat and man shoes. She brought her blanket. She didn't know what else the woman might need to get better.

Alex looked out of the window. If that woman laying on her couch had really fallen from the sky then someone must have seen it. Mr Collins might know what had happened. But he had dozed off and she didn't want to bother him. Hell, if that was a plane, by this time everyone must know it.

She didn't know what time it was, probably an hour had passed before the lights turned on. She finally managed to put the kettle on and make a green tea for herself, the phone started charging. Alex put her mug on a desk and turned on her computer. If there was an air crash, then everyone must talk only about it. And if everyone talked about it, she could find some useful phone numbers and tell the press that one passenger had been lucky to survive. Maybe they knew what to do next.

Nothing.

Not a word about a plane hitting the earth. Not in the sky of Lidunburgh, not in the sky of the globe whatsoever. Not today. A disturbing frown appeared on Alex's face. She glimpsed at the staircase where down below was the living room. Well, the woman couldn't have appeared just out of the blue in the sky.

That's when the idea struck her head. Maybe she was a loony. And she hadn't fallen from the sky, she had climbed a pine and had fallen from the broken branch… No, it didn't fit. There was no mental hospital anywhere close and pines were too high for any creature to climb on the top of them.

So who the hell was she?!

* * *

The Doctor opened her eyes and breathed in heavily. Everything hurt. The whole existing hurt – that's how the regeneration aftermath felt. She couldn't bring herself upwards, she couldn't move her hand, her nerves in fingers tickled with a new energy that was superseding the old one. That was nasty. But that wasn't the first time she felt like this.

She moved her stoned neck to look around. The place she was in looked like a living room and she appeared to be lying on the thing called a couch. That's when she put two pieces together and assumed what must have happened to her after she'd knocked off.

She needed to speak to the woman who saved her. She needed to tell her that everything was fine, a doctor wasn't needed, that it's her daily routine to fall from the sky with a blowing blue box on her back. And she needed something to eat. Gosh, she was _so_ hungry!

"Hey, you're awake!" She heard a voice somewhere near. Then, she saw a face above her, thin, with sharp cheeks, wry long nose with left wing higher than the right, green eyes and a black nest for birds in the place where must have been hair. Or it might have been her hair, just very sloppy. "I tried to call the ambulance for you but the line seems to be dead."

"Yeah, I a–" a golden smoke left her mouth a second after she opened it. So she was still in the process, renewing on molecular levels.

"What was that?"

"Excessive regeneration energy," she said surprised. "Don't worry, it will pass in a day or so." The Doctor couldn't but notice how she felt relieved all of a sudden, the pain eased away, and she sat on the couch. "I feel… younger." She tried her limbs out, putting her hands up and down, bending her elbows and knees. She jumped on her legs but they didn't hold her so she fell back to the couch. "No, no, I'm not me yet, I have him in me. The old me. I'm still…" She looked at her hands. Where was a golden ring there was nothing today. Where was a hand with long elegant fingers there was a softer version, silkier. "cooking."

"Excuse me, who are you? What is excessive regeneration energy? What do you mean old you?"

The Doctor gave the woman a meaningful look. She was confused and afraid. She probably had many questions since she'd found her under the wood. And, well, as she saved her life she truly deserved some answers.

"Ah, sorry, my bad. I didn't have a chance to introduce myself, did I?" She gingerly run her hand in her hair. "Name is the Doctor. The race is Gallifreyan. That's all you need to know because that's all there is to know. What planet is it anyway? Your cushions are awful. The couch is just terrible. No, hang on, let me guess it." The Doctor put her tips of middle fingers to her temples. "It's… Earth. North England. The city is…"

"Liduburgh?"

"Lidunburgh! Yes!" The Doctor exclaimed and stopped. Lidunburgh? Seriously? "No, sorry never heard about Lidunburgh. Lovely name for a city to live, though. Bad place to die. Good for me that I'm not dead."

"Look, who are you?"

"I've told you, I'm the Doctor."

"I'm serious!"

"And I'm _deadly_ serious. Who are _you_?"

"Alex."

"Alex, it was very nice to meet you. Tomorrow, I'll leave a winning lottery ticket in your mailbox, don't forget to check it. Bye." With that word, the Doctor jumped on her legs, took her coat from the arm of the couch and headed to what she presumed must be a way out. She felt already dizzy and tired from a talk with her saviour, she could pass out any minute now.

She reached the door and tried to open it, only to find that it's locked.

"Wait!" She heard Alex's voice approaching. "You can't go out there! You need a medical help!"

"Well, I can't be locked in here! I need, I need…" She felt lost all of a sudden.

What did she need? Nobody waited for her to be picked up. There was no one to impress with little fancy dots, no one who she could charge with emotions and a pleasant tickling of adventure spirit. It was a fresh start, new chapter in her book. And she had no one to share it with.

She was alone.

"I need the TARDIS." Yes, that's right, that's wise. First things first, she needed to sleep off the regeneration aftermath. Then she would have plenty of time to think something up.

She found the key hanging on the nail and unlocked the door to the outside.

There was an old man blocking her way out who gave her a startle.

"Hi, Mr Collins!" Alex greeted him with enthusiasm on.

"Hi, Alex." The man lacked emotions as he greeted her back. "Who is your new friend?"

"Oh, I think she is…"

"About to leave." The Doctor ended her sentence and forced her way through the man.

It was early morning outside, the Doctor looked around the street. A typical street with two-storey houses made of bricks. She turned her head to the left and almost exclaimed from happiness. The TARDIS was here, waiting for her devotedly.

She fidgeted in her trouser pockets in search of the key and, having found the one, she put it in the lock. The door opened invitingly, the Doctor felt her body started trembling from sudden exhaustion. Finally, she would find some peace in her own safe place.

"Why did you enter an old police box?" Alex questioned her, opening the doors widely.

The Doctor put her hand over her face to hide her eyes from a sudden light of the waking up sun. She turned around to meet with a blank wall.

The old man, Mr Collins, looked rather surprised. When he met her eyes he averted his and went back to home.

"Well, I thought it was my TA–" the Doctor hadn't a chance to end her excuse when her nerves sent a joint of pain. She dismissed a hand that stretched to help her. Her eyelids were too heavy to hold them, the head swirled around. "I'm alright! I'm alright. Everything is under control. Don't call doctors. Don't. Panic." The Doctor managed to say when the world went black.

* * *

Alex was left bluntly with a woman in her hands on the street. Again. But now Mr Collins was watching her with great interest which was somehow unsettling. She hooked the Doctor's hand around her shoulder and put her hands around her waist. That wasn't a comfortable position for dragging. But then again, her profession wasn't exactly dragging women in delirium state. And about that last thing, Alex hoped this madness of hers would wear off somehow on its own.

"Alex, is that woman your friend?" She looked up to see that Mr Collins helped her opening the door to her house.

"No, I've found her in that spooky dark pine grove in the park. You know, the one you told me to stay away from." Alex smiled bitterly.

"Okay, Alex." He nodded lightly and headed back to his house.

Odd.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Yes, Alex?" Mr Collins turned around. He was back in his nonchalant mood.

"Haven't you seen anything weird in the sky today?"

"No, Alex."

Strange. Very strange.

Alex pushed the Doctor back into her house and closed the door.

Right. Ambulance. It's about the time her phone was charged and the line was fixed.

Having had the Doctor on her couch once again, she took her phone from the coffee table in the living room. She called 999.

"Umm, hi. I have a woman here who is constantly losing her consciousness. She also has this cut on her face which…" In the corner of her eye, Alex noticed that something wasn't right. It took her several seconds to understand what it was. "Umm, sorry, no cuts. No bruises, too." She gulped nervously, checking her face again and again. But there had been one, she'd seen it! "Please, just help me, I don't know what to do with her. She looks like she was in a crash."

"We'll help you, Alex." A soothing calm voice over the line told her. "Please, stay where you are and don't worry."

"Thanks a lot." She sighed heavily. Very soon, everything will be alright again.

But for now, she still needed to make that logotype perfect for her customer.


	2. Chapter 2

The Doctor opened her eyes, her lungs hurt when she took a deep gulp of air. She was on a couch, quite uncomfortable couch, familiar couch, her neck completely stoned, her limbs numb. Her eyes darted to the phone on the coffee table, which was next to her. What time was it? What day was it?

She stretched her hand to the phone with those thoughts, her brains only beginning to warm up, and halted. Her eyebrows knitted together in disarray. The Doctor brought up her hand to the face. There was a glimmer of radiating regeneration force leaving her body. And the hand! It wasn't quite hers, fewer hairs, different shape, shorter fingers, smaller palm than she'd remembered and feminine milky skin. The luminescence stopped. She turned the hand around. Squeezed it and unclenched. No ring. Was there a ring in the first place?

The Doctor drew out her other hand. No ring there, too. Had she made up the ring when she had been sleeping? Had she been sleeping?

She threw away a blanket, it landed somewhere on the floor. With a groan, she got up. Everything hurt.

She found a bathroom in the house, turned on a sink and washed her face. She looked over her dark clothes, oversized and ragged, red lining peeped out where the dark material was broken, they smelt of burnt cotton. That's when it struck her with severe pain: regeneration, one more lifetime, burning TARDIS, falling and finally waking up in a dark place. Everything was fuzzy, everything was confused – her now and tomorrow, tomorrow and yesterday. The console on fire, the body burning, hearts beating so ever slowly, the pulse decreasing, no one at his side, no one to teach him, no one to be taught by him. She was alone.

She looked up, came into a woman and startled with a scream. A chill rose up the Doctor's spine when she realised that it was a mirror, and the woman was herself. She turned her head, touched her nose, brushed her hair. She was different. She was new. The Doctor made the deepest frown she could make: not her best, not so impressive and not so very frightening. A simple serious frown for simple serious talks. She smiled: a charming smile! They would certainly like it!

On a laundry basket, she found someone's clothes. Right, she needed to find the woman who saved her, she remembered there had been one somewhere, she needed to say her thank you and goodbye.

The Doctor got back to the hall, there was a door to the living room, a door to the kitchen and a spiral staircase to the second floor. Her stomach made a space-whale noise, so the choice where to go was obvious. She poked her head in the kitchen only to find that a massive black Rottweiler was slumbering on a pillow. The dog hadn't moved an inch when she came in. The Doctor decided to try out her luck and tiptoed towards the fringe. She got a feeling that the dog was watching her all the time but was just too lazy to do anything about her.

Having found a packet of nuts, she headed to observe the second floor.

The second floor had two rooms. The first one was a bedroom with a small bed and a paper chaos all around. The second one appeared to be a working place. There was a desk with computer, the walls were all in posters of comic heroes and drawings. Lots of drawings. Some were minimalistic, some were very detailed, but they all seemed to have one common thing – the same person in green tights in some heroic pose. At the desk was a woman who was so deeply concentrated on her work that she didn't notice when the Doctor came in.

"Hello?" The Doctor gently called the woman.

The woman turned around with a startle. "Ah! It's only you, hi." She closed all her browser tabs. The Doctor only caught the last one: 'fluorescent skin diseases'. "I've called the ambulance one more time but… uh… it still doesn't come."

"I told you, no doctors." A deep furrow appeared on the Doctor's face. "Or did I?"

"You did." The woman affirmed and bit her lips awkwardly. "Three times, in fact."

The Doctor tried to recall her day but she could vaguely remember only parts of it: falling, waking up… no, that was it.

"I don't remember." With dismay, the Doctor looked at the woman. She, on the other hand, didn't look surprised at all.

"I know. When you've come in you wore that lost face, again. You probably don't remember my name, right?"

_No, not Alvin. I'm not a chipmunk._

"Was it Alvin?" The Doctor tried.

"Alex." The woman prompted in a small voice.

"Ahh, Alex! What a charming name!" A grin enveloped the Doctor's face. "Look, it was very nice to meet you but I need…"

"I know, you need to go because you don't want to be rude. You'll leave a winning lottery ticket in my mailbox, I shall check it tomorrow. Then you'll enter that police box on my street which you'll call your TARDIS. But it's not your TARDIS apparently because whenever you enter it you look confused. And then you'll lose your consciousness and I'll have to drag your body back to the couch. Can we break the circle?" Alex told her with a little shy smile.

The Doctor dashed to the window and looked out of it. It was getting dark outside, and she found that police box Alex had mentioned. "Oh, it really looks like my TARDIS!.." the Doctor considered her words with a pause. "Or actually my TARDIS looks like a police box. Why is it here anyway? Haven't they demolished them?"

"I dunno. Mr Collins said it had always been there."

"Really?" The Doctor paid a glance back to the blue box. "What year is it?"

"What planet are you from?"

"Gallifrey. Why do you ask?"

"Ah, never mind. It's 2018."

The Doctor gave the blue box an intentional stare. Strange... Very strange and very interesting at the same time. No, probably nothing. Probably she was making up things. Or probably not. The police box looked like it had never been used before.

She noticed a man staring at her from the street. He must have been there for a very long time, he seemed glued to his spot. The Doctor opened the window widely and poked her head out of it. "Hi! You must be Mr Collins! How do you do?"

But Mr Collins didn't answer her. Pretending he hadn't seen her at all, he turned back and walked down the street to his house. The Doctor could only hear the shut of his door.

"He doesn't talk much," Alex explained. "And he doesn't like strangers."

"Why not?" The Doctor closed the window with a loud bolt. "I like strangers. You can unstrange them and make your best friends."

"I don't think he shares your idea. When I had only moved in, he shooed me away every time he saw me. Said I'm not his Alex."

"And why would he say that I wonder?"

"The old lady who sold me this house was also Alex. It took me some time to explain to him I'm not her." Alex eyed the Doctor from tip to toe and shook her head. The Doctor peeked down. Yeah, a nasty appear. "Look, as the ambulance doesn't come today at all apparently, why don't you take a shower?"

"Why would I need a shower?"

"Because you smell? And frankly, you look like someone who had a hell out of a day. And I have many questions, and I- I- I'm just confused! And you're weird! You had that orange aura emitting like within you, and you were speaking some gibberish in tongues. You certainly do have a concussion because you were keeping to lose your consciousness, and the ambulance just doesn't come and nobody wills to help me!"

"Hey, you saved me, you more than anyone deserve an explanation. Ask anything you like."

Alex didn't take much time to pick up one of her many questions. "What's your name? I need to know it to find your family or friends so they could take you away."

"The Doctor."

"No, your real name."

"The Doctor." The Doctor shrugged.

"Had you been on a plane before you fell?"

"No." Technically, that wasn't a lie.

"Who are you?"

"I'm just a normal person, passing by, looking for troubles."

She saw that Alex didn't believe a thing of what she was saying to her. The woman wore that face she knew too well, the face that was looking for better answers. "You must have a really bad rare concussion," Alex concluded.

The Doctor considered her words with a long deep hum. "I might have. I fell from 12.5 thousand feet. I might have forgotten things. Important things. Not important too. This new me might have forgotten how to play the Burmese harp, or how to read backwards, or how to write with two hands. Poor Leonardo, I've already asked him to explain this trick four times in the past."

"Right. Just… have a shower. I left you some of my clothes there, but when the ambulance comes, please, change back into yours."

"Okay." The Doctor was heading to the exit of the working place but stopped at the door, her hand simply wiggled in the air. "Ah, Alex! Can I ask you a question, too?"

"Yeah?" The woman seemed to be flabbergasted already.

"Why do you help me?"

Her mouth opened slightly before she noticed and shut it. "I just do. I mean, I found you… I don't know. Do I need a reason?" Alex's eyes unconsciously moved to the biggest poster in the room which had a man in green tights and many handwritten scribbles all around him.

"No," the Doctor shook her head, leaving her alone in her working place, "of course you don't."

* * *

Alex put the tip of her finger on the computer power button. Was she doing a wise thing? Letting some stranger be in her house for more than a day? Of course, it wasn't her fault, the ambulance hadn't shown yet, but she couldn't shoo away the idea from her head that normal people don't do that, they don't find strangers in the woods and keep them in their living rooms. But the ambulance… argh, what did take them so long?! She had a woman with a concussion in her shower, about to wear her clothes and go back to sleep and possibly lose her memories once again. Above it all, she was alone in this business! Mr Collins had refused to help. Other neighbors hadn't even left their comfortable houses when she had called them, not even Mrs Caley who had looked like a nice old lady before she shut a door quite close to Alex's face.

Alex phoned 999 again, but all she heard was answering machine saying that the help was on its way. Well, it didn't, did it?! And what was she just supposed to do?!

The man's blazing eyes and a shining white smile from the poster told her to relax. Strange things happened in the life, no one's safe from them, and the Doctor, well, she was one of them. She should probably go to sleep, she was tired and overstressed, she needed to dream it all off.

Alex closed the door to her bedroom, leaned on it and sighed.

She could do that. She could accept that this was all for a short time, not permanently. Except the Doctor was the first strange thing in her entire life, and she hadn't the faintest idea how to deal with it.

Alex stepped accidentally on one of her sketches, her shoe leaving a slight footprint. When she picked it up, it appeared to be that same man in green tights she hadn't named since she'd made him up back in uni. This version of him had ginger hair, blue eyes and wide nose, the costume was plain green. One of the first visions of her own superhero: no plot, no character, just a vision of a masculine, handsome vigilante with a messed up background. She picked up the rest sketches from the floor and put them in a heap on a bedside table.

She got inside the bed and texted to her customer that she would send him a better version of the logotype tomorrow. Today, she had had an accident. The Doctor. That she hadn't put in her text.

She couldn't make herself sleep no matter what side she was laying on. She turned on the lights, found a pencil and turned around a sketch to use it. She started with drawing a square in the heart of the paper, then she put the square into the circle. She added few curves, she deleted them.

She looked at what she had done, really looked at it. Seriously, was that all she could come up with after so many years? A square and a circle, she gawked at it. Did she lose it? Or was it just today?

Alex crumpled up the paper and throw it in a basket. She missed.

Argh, whatever, she can always try tomorrow.

* * *

The Doctor zipped up a black hoody. The clothes she was given weren't exactly her size but still were more comfortable and cleaner than her old clothes folded neatly on a washer. She put a sonic screwdriver and a packet of nuts in her new pockets.

In the hall, the dog was sitting at the front door, and when the Doctor was in view, it barked at her, its tail waggled from side to side. The Doctor looked baffled at him (was he talking to her with that imperious tone?), but the dog's look gave no doubt.

"You wanna go outside?" The dog barked excitedly. "I dunno, maybe we should ask Alex first." The Doctor mused, putting her left foot on the first step of the staircase to the second floor. The dog rushed towards her and gently clenched his teeth on her hoody. "Five minutes?" She considered his plea. Well, five minutes wouldn't kill anyone. "Okay, boy, but just so you know I'm a Time Lord, meaning I'm very good at the time. Mostly. Sometimes. Maybe never." The dog smirked. "Aye, shut up!"

She let the massive creature out and followed him down the road, with no lead which was nagging her mind. If Alvin ran, she could only talk sense into him, but with that ego, she doubted she could cope.

As Alvin was doing his business outside the house, the Doctor craned her neck up. The sky was dim, lit slightly from the lampposts on the street, several grey clouds were obliviously floating to the East. She didn't worry about the TARDIS, she would come back when she felt better. The Doctor watched the sky to check the stars.

"You must leave. You don't belong here."

The Doctor looked back to see Mr Collins watching her with an expressionless wrinkled face, his body slumped on a wooden cane.

"Sorry, I'm just walking my friend's dog. We promise to stay away from your house."

"No." The man emphasized, his posture dangerously moving to her. "You don't belong here."

"Yes, you're right, I don't live here." The Doctor put on her best smile and stepped back.

"You don't belong here!" The man shouted at her with his cane above his head. The sonic was quickly withdrawn out of her pocket and pointed at him. There was a light wheeze; the Doctor pressed the button to simply scare away the old man with far from modern technologies. Instead, Mr Collins stopped dead, one foot in the air, only his eyes were moving rapidly from side to side with a sudden confusion of what had just happened.

"Oh." The Doctor peeked at the sonic screwdriver. Back to the man. She pressed it to her ear and listened in. "Oh!" She exclaimed after several beeps. "I don't want to disappoint you, but, the reading says, neither do you."

The Doctor watched him cautiously. His eyes were statically looking back at her. As the effect of the pulse the sonic screwdriver had given him started to wear off, his mouth unfroze.

"You are not Alex's friend and Alex is not my Alex. You took her away from me. You are not supposed to be here."

"How old are you?" The Doctor asked, scanning him over and over again. The sonic gave her a picture of what was standing in front of her but nothing gave away his real age.

"Five." Mr Collins hissed through his clenched teeth.

"How can you be five years old and look like an old man, I don't understand." The Doctor shook the sonic and tried again. "You look good inside, no organ faulty, no bugs, no cracks. You're perfect."

"I am not perfect. We are not perfect. Yet. But you are," Mr Collins said in unearthly tone. "You spoiled my Alex. That's why you shall leave."

"But nothing you say makes sense. Nothing." The Doctor felt a tickling warm spreading over her hearts. It wasn't the excessive energy anymore, this feeling was pleasant and exciting.

Mr Collins mobilized but he wasn't aggressive anymore. At last, he put the cane down and hadn't attacked her, though there was something threatening in his look nonetheless.

The Doctor's hand was touched by something wet and cold, the dog was calling her back to the house as five minutes had passed long ago.

"The dog belongs here," Mr Collins said with a hint of a smile, but it very quickly disappeared. "Alex belonged here. Alex doesn't belong here. You don't belong here. Go away."

Alvin grabbed the Doctor's sleeve and pulled it with a force so she had no choice but to succumb.

"See you tomorrow, Mr Collins." The Doctor said, casting a glance back at him, and reluctantly followed the dog.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I so much hate little things in recent DW series. Plot holes, overdrama, that green polka dot shirt, Clara putting the Space Throttle down, not up meaning they had quite a crush after Mummy on the Orient Express, cutscenes and WHERE'S THE VALEYARD, MOFFAT, WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE SHADOW, I DEMAND THE VALEYARD! However, and it's very funny, the more I hate them, the more I realise that there are many more things to love. And I'm not alone, there are people over a globe who love Moffat era, they might even think it's better than RTD era, and they have a right to love it. You might think the Eleven Doctor is too reckless, goofy, irresponsible, and childish but someone considers him as his/her Doctor, the most favourite. You might think the Twelve Doctor is too dark, rude, old, cranky asshole and frankly scary but he taught me English (Scottish accent included) and how to stop shaking, mumbling, forgetting words and finally speak up – I consider him as my Doctor. The reason why I'll never write bad about any Doctor, even on the Doctor's behalf, is because every fan has a right to love and hate any incarnation he/she chooses. I hope I made myself clear here.

Having the door very carefully shut, the Doctor leaned on the wall. She heaved a long, long excited sight.

If there was the TARDIS she would kiss her to death for the best place to fall on. Metal carcass, synthetic skin, five years old – all united in one old chap, Mr Collins, living next door. Was it Christmas? No, it didn't look like it.

She must tell what she had found out about him someone or the knowledge would burn her from the inside.

The closest victim, who had managed to get herself sleeping only five minutes ago, was upstairs and was not in the least aware of the boiling emotions inside the Doctor.

In her sleep, Alex heard someone's heels smashing down a floor. She realised, too late, that someone was the Doctor and she was racing to her.

The Doctor dashed into the room and, skipping several meters of the floor, jiggled violently the curled up body in the bed.

"Alex! Wake up! You won't believe me what I know about Mr Collins!" The Doctor shouted excitedly, probably waking up the whole street, if not the city.

The woman's eyes fluttered widely, she jumped out of the Doctor's reach, almost falling from the bed in the process, "The f–"

"He's an android!" The Doctor shouted, cuddling on a pillow, her speech was too fast to Alex's comprehension, who was watching her in awe. "Possibly extraterrestrial, but I'm really not sure about that part. What I know for now is that he blames you, or me, or us, for making his Alex, perhaps an android too, disappear, though I'm not quite sure who she was for him, a daughter, a sister, a wife or just a good friend. And he likes your dog. Very. A-a-and, he's not the only android in your city. There might be dozens of them, now I wonder what's on their mind! Oh, I sincerely hope they plan nothing bad."

Her eyes grew as large as saucers, the Doctor waited for her reaction. Alex blinked, twice, thrice, shaking off the last trace of sleep. Her mouth was a perfect O, she tried to transform it into something else. "What?" She finally managed to say.

"I know, it's a lot to consider! And you know what it means?" The Doctor stared at her with a manic smile. The smile gave Alex an unpleasant tremble from the tip of her head to her heart.

"What?" She asked impulsively before she could stop her mouth.

"That I'm staying right here till I know he's not dangerous. Money is not a problem, I'll give you millions for that couch. Nice couch. Very comfortable."

"No," Alex shook her head, "no, no! You can't stay here!"

"Why not?" The Doctor looked sincerely dumbfounded.

"Because it's… my house, you know. I'm living here! And the ambulance car is on its way. Probably." She added timidly.

"Ah, the ambulance." The Doctor chuckled. She seemed to cool down hearing that word. Then, a carefree smile crept on her face as a simple question, and a very simple answer struck her. "Do you know what ambulance doesn't come in the first ten minutes after you called it?"

"A bad one?" Alex guessed.

"No. The one that knows you don't need it." The Doctor stroked her chin.

"But you need it! We need!" Alex cried desperately.

"Not when they consider you as an android." The Doctor smiled smugly as if she had just solved the case. Alex sighed in defeat, she definitely had just lost that young woman who called herself a doctor. "You told me yourself, the lady who sold you this house, she was Alex, the one that is missed by Mr Collins, the one which is an android like him, probably. No, why probably? Likely! And now they must think you're her! How did you find this house?"

"On the internet."

"And did nothing strike you as odd? Any funny demands to the buyer?" The Doctor questioned her.

Alex considered her words. She tried to recall the old lady's sentient eyes and a sweet aroma of tangerines, how she had been happy to sell her the house and her warning that the crazy chap next door might miss her but she mustn't worry, it would pass. Alex had been fine with everything, nothing struck her as odd. Except for the price was a bit cheap and the woman had left her a dog, there wasn't anything she would call suspicious.

"No, this is crazy. You're delusional. I should probably have called the police."

"Yes, you should have but haven't, have you?" The Doctor mused. "You should have called it the second time I woke up. You should have called it when you found me unconscious in that forest. But you didn't. You know, for a human being you're very unsocial, Alex, has anybody told you that?"

Alex flinched at that as if she was stung by a needle. She had been making up an answer, an excuse, the line had been dead after all, when the Doctor's posture was lighted up with red and blue colours. Alex came to the window and muttered 'about the time' under her uneven nose.

"It's the ambulance," she told the Doctor.

"Oh." Her tone was bleak all of a sudden. "Well, maybe you were right. Maybe it's that bad." The Doctor left the room. In the hall, she shouted, "I'll tell them they're not needed anymore!"

"Yeah, whatever." Alex buried her head under the pillow. _Wait._ What had she just said? "No!" The mattress squeaked miserably. "Um... Doctor!"

* * *

The Doctor waggled to the door, pulled off the key from the nail in the wall and put it in the lock. Alex shouted something to her but, well, it was too late to stop her now.

"I'm so sorry to say this, guys, _but–_ "

A metallic fist from the door gap met her stomach and sent her away on the floor.

Alex clattered down the stairs and hauled. In the doorway stood a faceless cold creature two meters high, its surface smooth and shiny. Its arm was still in the air after it hit the Doctor, who was gaping at it from the floor, too shocked to say anything. Having turned its head in her direction, it sensed Alex's presence and trod to her.

"Unit two point five point three nine nine point four point zero zero, 'Alex'," the robot screeched, the source of voice unknown. "You have reached the end of your lifespan. The recycle is required."

"What…" the woman mouthed, her eyebrows up on her forehead in shock.

The Doctor gripped the creature's leg with a strong grasp; the robot turned its head to her and kicked its leg aiming at her face. "Run!"

But Alex didn't. She refused to believe in what she was seeing in her house. She'd been living in Lidunburgh for several years and used to see the place as the most boring hole in North England, it was the quietest place in the world with the majority number of people over 60 years of age. She had regretted several times in the past that she moved in there if not for the cheap price.

The robot shook off the Doctor effortlessly as if she was an empty sack, and ominously took the direction towards Alex.

"Do not resist and the deactivation process will be painless." The arm that had sent the Doctor away stretched to her.

A howling whir filled the hall. The faceless bulk shut down before Alex, the hand was close to her neck. Mirrored in the polished surface, she saw herself, frightened.

"I told you to run." Alex flinched as from a dream.

"You alright?" The Doctor appeared from the left of the deactivated robot. From what Alex saw, she was deeply concerned, one eyebrow was up on her face.

"Yes." Alex timidly shook her head. No, of course, she wasn't. She was far from alright, not even close, not even a bit. What was that thing? Had it just tried to kill her?

The Doctor held a device, kind of a wand of a blue colour, which she swiped around the robot.

"Oh." The Doctor gave a peek to the human, but she hadn't reacted in any way to her exclamation. Right, her attempt to distract her from the shock had failed.

"Is– is it dead?" Alex asked.

"No. It's deactivated. Permanent. Until…" The Doctor poked the creature's shoulder.

"Until what?"

"Until whoever or, more likely, whatever has sent it turns it on again." The Doctor pointed the sonic at the head.

Feeling colder, Alex folded her arms on the chest. She distanced from the robot, leaving the Doctor to do whatever she liked with it.

"Oh…" The Doctor's eyebrows knitted deeply on her head. "Oh!"

"What is it?"

"Oh?" She asked as she saw Alex for the first time. "Ah. Well, things got more interesting, that is."

"Excuse me?"

The Doctor put a thumb between her teeth. "The carcass is the same as Mr Collins'."

"Mr Collins?"

"Yeah, the one who is an android." The Doctor didn't care to explain any further because she had told Alex everything in her bedroom and believed she had listened to her carefully. "But this, this is a primitive creation. It's stupider, it's slower, it's," the Doctor gave it a scan again, "twenty years old! It's older than your friendly neighbour, now that's very interesting, you see. Help me move it into the living room."

"What?"

"Well, it can't just stay here. It blocks the way to the stairs." The Doctor said nonchalantly, putting her hands around the robot's chest.

Alex obeyed the Doctor, she held its legs and they put it on the couch in the living room.

* * *

The woman wasn't okay, the Doctor wasn't stupid to miss such a simple truth. Though she didn't quite remember how she could know that, she knew that she must fix her, cheer her up somehow because that's what she felt she must do.

"Never stand still." She said as they put the robot on the couch.

"What?"

"When the robot stepped to you, you froze on the spot." She explained. "You just watched it slowly moving to you. You had time to run to the second floor and hide in the bedroom. You should have done that. But you didn't."

"I dunno what happened. I was…"

"Afraid, I know." The Doctor gave her a meaningful look. "But if it was quicker, if I didn't stop it, you would be dead. If you can't fight back, you run. Promise me?"

The dog entered the room, its tongue out of its maw. Alvin sniffed the metallic body on the couch and yawned loudly. Alex beckoned him to her, patting the dog on his head.

"Why must I promise you anything? It's not likely this situation is going to be twice." The woman chuckled nervously. She cast a glance at the Doctor, her face was grim.

"Alex, I have a theory." She didn't want to tell her it but it seemed she was left with no choice. "It's just a theory, but my gut tells me it's more than a theory. Remember what I told you about why the ambulance hadn't come?"

"Because it thought I don't need it." Her fingers scratched the spot under the dog's ear.

"Exactly." The Doctor fidgeted a sonic screwdriver in her hand. "You know what is it?"

"No…"

"It's a sonic screwdriver. The best equipment for a time traveller, must-have if you wish to call it so. You can build this handy thing on your own or ask your TARDIS to give it to you. It can fix things, open doors, make a sound but most importantly it can scan the surroundings for many useful things and even analyse them as it is connected with the TARDIS data banks. You believe me?"

"I don't know. Am I sleeping?"

"If I told you you were sleeping, would you believe me?"

Alex hesitated and then answered. "Yes."

"No, you're not sleeping. I'm sorry. This is for real. Mr Collins is an android, his skin is made of synthetic material, he has an artificial heart and stomach, his blood is not real; this thing on the couch wanted to kill you and its bones are the same as in Mr Collins. But back to my theory, a sonic screwdriver and why it took the ambulance almost a day to arrive. How many people living on this street?"

"I'm not sure. But they're mostly senior citizens like Mr Collins–" Alex seemed to get her idea. "Wait…"

The Doctor pointed the sonic at nothing in particular. The dog licked Alex's open palm. A whizzing noise filled the room.

"Two organic living beings." Their eyes met each other. "For 100 meters. For 500 meters." The Doctor's voice was getting quieter. "For 1 kilometre. For 25 kilometres…"

"Oh, god," Alex's eyes doubled in size.

She shoved the sonic in the left pocket. There was no need anymore to test her theory, now they knew it was true. Better to find out what these creatures were doing on Earth and who was in charge of them.

"Alex?"

"Yes, Doctor?" Alex's face looked troubled, she repeatedly stroked the dog's ear.

"I strongly recommend you to go back to your bedroom."

"Why?"

"Because I'm going to find out where this thing came from and I have a hunch this won't be easy. I need to be sure that I'll have time to stop it if it goes out of my control."

"But…"

"Take your dog with you." The Doctor cast a glance at Alvin who was grinning with a wide smile. "He has something sentient in his eyes."

Alex nodded. Leading the dog under the collar, she left the living room to the Doctor and the metallic creature on their own.

* * *

When the door was shut, the Doctor heaved a long sigh of the orange cloud. Still in the process, she was unstable. Any minute could happen something unpredictable and she wasn't exactly welcome to surprises. If the robot woke up, she wasn't sure she would stop it this time. She wasn't sure for how long the regeneration process would take.

The Doctor slipped down on her knees near the couch. There were more important affairs than her instability. This city, for example. The big and lovely city, she'd seen it in the sky, wonderful lighting system. Except she hadn't ever heard about it. It didn't exist, not on the map, not anywhere.

"Lidunburgh," she tried it on her tongue. "Li-dun-burgh."

No, it didn't ring any bell at all.

* * *

Meanwhile, Mr Collins was looking out of the window of his house. The old car of the ambulance was outside the neighbour's house, Alex's. He watched it with no interest on his face, how blue and red changed each other in a whirling dance. Inside his head though, thousands and thousands of artificial neurones were processing this information and trying to find a proper emotion to show. An error by an error by an error by an error, they couldn't find the one. Ironically, they couldn't find the reason for countless errors either.

Mr Collins looked up at the sky. Bad weather to stargaze, he realised.

He shut the curtains.

* * *

Alex got into her bed, though refused to turn off the lights. Having Alvin under her armpit, she repeated the same phrase the Doctor had told her over and over again. And though she could hardly understand what was going on and what those words really meant due to the shock, she felt it was no good news to her.

 _"_ _Two organic living beings,"_ the woman who called herself the Doctor and a time-traveller repeated in her head. _"For 100 meters. For 500 meters. For 1 kilometre…"_


	4. Chapter 4

Alex opened her heavy eyelashes only to find that she was alone in her bedroom, first light pink beams were touching her walls. She groaned, rolled on another side to hide her face from a shiny thing far far away from her planet. She felt bad, she hadn't got much sleep that night, her dreams doomed with horrors she could vaguely remember now.

Alvin was lying beside her on the bed, his heavy body radiating with heat. Her tip of the finger touched his nose. Cold and wet. The dog licked her open palm playfully.

 _"Two organic living beings…"_ The Doctor's voice sounded inside her head.

Alex jumped away from the dog, fell out from the bed. She remembered what was the nightmare about. But no... No, no, no, no! That can't be right, she was real, she wasn't artificial! That was a dream, now she felt like a real human! She was born in Leeds in 1985, her father James and mother… She slowly turned her hand around, and there, half mockingly, was a wet trace of Alvin's saliva.

Alex heard something really heavy fell on the floor in the living room. That must have been the Doctor. She must have been still working on that metallic killer that tried to attack her yesterday. Alex should probably check on her, she might know answers, she got that little thingy, that handy screwdriver that made noises and could see through your body. She must tell her the truth.

When she stepped out of the bedroom though she wasn't sure she needed to know if she was real or not.

"I know where our chap came from." The Doctor said with her back on her. It seemed she was done with the robot; she was dragging it to the exit now.

"Where?" Alex asked absentminded. The Doctor gave her a pleading look; she quickly got a hint and pulled the robot's legs up in the air.

"Well," the Doctor said as they carried it outside. "I don't know exactly where it came from, but I have got coordinates received by the screwdriver. I could have checked the place by myself but it's quite far away."

"And what are you going to do?"

"Me?" The Doctor halted, her eyes bulged out of the orbits. Alex felt the robot's heavy legs slipping out of her hands. "You don't want to be in?"

"I still don't believe much in what's going on. If it's not in my head." She shrugged. She knew it was real, but she needed some good proofs she wasn't going mad.

"It's not in your head, I can prove it to you."

"Can you?" Alex asked her, the hope in her heart spreading so rapidly.

"No."

They put the remnants of the robot inside the ambulance car.

Alex's shoulders hunched down. The day wasn't getting any better as she had assumed yesterday. "You, a robot trying to kill me, a fake neighbour with whom I lived for almost a year," she gave away a nervous laugh, "that's just too good to be true."

"It is true though." The Doctor said. "And it's kind of good. Depends on what you think is good."

"You've just told me yourself, you can't prove that."

"Yes." The Doctor considered her words, her chin up and eyes darted to the sky. She stayed like this for some time and Alex was afraid she was experiencing another concussion side-effect again. The Doctor unfroze with a little hint of a smile on her face as if the sky told her exactly the words she needed. "But what would you do if it was true? That is is, wouldn't you want to leave this empty place?"

Alex flinched at the mention that the city was empty. It reminded her that there were only two people for many kilometres and the same paranoia that hadn't let her sleep before crept up her spine again. Still, she refused to freak out in front of the Doctor.

"You see, even if it was, I still have a job to do." Alex tried to sound nonchalant. "A logotype, and, well, other dozens of orders I promised to perfect."

"Ah, an old human appetence to make it right and decent," the Doctor chuckled. "You know that Greeks had to make columns a bit curvy and tilted just so their eyes could see it right? Imperfect perfection. Took three generations to come up with such artifice."

"And why do you tell me that? It's not like this knowledge will help me in any way."

"I never said it will." She put her hand on Alex's shoulder and gave her a warming smile. "But you know what will? What will really make you better?"

"What?"

"A fresh air."

"But I'm outside."

"Not like this. I think now you're more inside than outside. And this inside is no bigger than the room on the second floor of this house over here, am I right? I've seen it before. Something bad happened and you shut the world out. Day after day after day after day you just do the same, repeating your routine. You might say that it's better than destroying planets or even galaxies, but all you do is just destroying yourself. Of course, if you prefer to stay then it's okay, it's your choice. I told you it is dangerous and I can't guarantee I'll have enough time to prevent bad things happening to you. Anything can happen to you…" Her voice downed to the murky point. "Sorry, I'm really bad at it, really didn't mean to scare you away." The Doctor averted her eyes and hid them with her hands from Alex.

"Bad at what?" Alex asked.

"Unstranging strangers," she puffed behind hands.

"Why would you want to make me your friend? I'm not special."

"No, you're not. But that's my second profession. Making unspecial special. You saved my life, and I owe you something worthwhile, more than a winning ticket. Winning ticket, seriously?! Pah! But I can't do it without my TARDIS. So, are you in or not?"

"Customers won't be happy." But Alex gave it a second thought. The Doctor was right at some point, but she didn't want to voice it out, it was too much for her. "On the other hand…" she squeezed her eyes, thinking it over. Whatever was happening and whatever that Doctor offered her was a total madness with an extra layer of something dangerous. She cast a glance at the Doctor who was waiting patiently for her answer, "they're already not happy."

"Good." She nodded. "You're driving."

"What? The ambulance?"

"I told you it's quite far away, and I don't see any other car. Besides, we need to return their property," the Doctor winked. When she was closing the back door of the ambulance car, the dog jumped in it. "Seems like we have a company!"

Alex watched the Doctor in shock while she energetically popped in the cabin. "Come on! This will be exciting, I promise you!"

Alex betted it would when she took her place in the driver seat.

* * *

Mr Collins saw the ambulance car leaving the neighborhood somewhere to the South. He knew it was wrong and against rules. He knew that because he felt a sudden rush to do the same and somewhere in the chain of errors of errors of errors was an abrupt stop command from beyound his mind.

He smiled sadly because of something only he could understand. His shaking hands closed the curtains.

So old, so cranky. He tried to remember how he felt yesterday. Probably he had felt better.

He opened the door to the garage. There had never been a car, and, well, he didn't bother to ask himself why; that would probably make more errors in his head. He didn't need a car anyway. All that he was looking for was a canister of fuel.

* * *

The Doctor was relieved that Alex agreed on her little escapade. She wasn't sure she could get the car to the place without any incident. She slightly drove her hand out of hoody's pocket: tips of her fingers were still glowing, though not so bright as before.

"Turn left," the Doctor said, listening carefully to the sonic screwdriver commands. When they reached the fork, Alex did as she was told.

The Doctor saw that there were more questions in her companion's head, but she fought against nudging her to actually ask them. If they were going to stick together, Alex should learn how to be initiative. Thankfully it didn't take too long when Alex cleared her throat as they turned again.

"Sorry, are you an alien?" Alex asked. Well, that wasn't the question the Doctor expected but what would have she rather expect from the person who faced it all for the first time? They always ask this kind of questions, ordinary questions, questions to know each other better, in the beginning, she just needed a bit practice.

"Sort of." The Doctor shrugged, hiding her hand back into hoody's pocket. She caught the woman's glance at her so she gave her a sheepish smile. Alex returned her eyes to the road.

"You said you hadn't been on the plane, then how did you appear in the pine grove?"

"Oh, so those were pines!" The Doctor exclaimed. She was so going to have culture one in her garden. She caught a strange look from her companion and sunk into the seat. "I was in the TARDIS. We were crashing, I think I accidentally hit her badly."

"What is exactly this TARDIS?"

"A ship. The best ship in the known Universe, to be precise."

"You hit your ship so hard that it crashed?" Alex sounded confused.

"It's…" her tongue clicked the roof of her mouth, "difficult. Very."

"So you're an alien."

"Yep. I am. And you are human?" The Doctor asked her, trying to sound convincingly sincerely.

Her shoulders hunched down, and she had a long time before she answered, "Well, yeah."

"Nice to meet you."

They drove silently for a minute or so.

"I don't get it, you don't look like an alien." Alex gave her a look and shook her head.

"An alien is just a term to use when you don't know someone's origin. I'm a Gallifreyan."

"That is you."

"Yes, me." The Doctor pointed to her chest.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to offend you."

"Don't you worry. You didn't."

They saw the dog's maw peer out between two seats. The Doctor smiled, she put a hand on his head and lightly patted it. On the other hand, Alex wasn't so glad to see Alvin, her eyes cautiously peeped at him, her expression was nervous.

The ambulance car was driving by with red-and-blue lights down the road. There wasn't a person on the street, it looked like this part of the city wasn't occupied at all. Houses were in cracks and looked abandoned, windows were sealed, the pedestrian zone was dirty with old rotten heaps of autumn leaves. The only sound was made by the engine of the car, outside there was nothing, not even a common sound of nature.

They parked the car outside of the old building with broken windows. A big red sign announced that it was, or rather had been, a hospital. Dirty brown bricks had been long ago red, the doors of the building were missed. It stood there ominous, not quite fitted in the street, too high than other houses, too dark.

On the other side of the street was a grocery store. And though it wasn't working anymore, it looked much friendly and Alex hoped they needed to get there than to the hospital.

Alas, the Doctor's little device was leading them exactly where Alex wanted to be the least.

The Doctor didn't notice the state of the hospital and didn't feel nervous at all. With a little shake of her head to Alex, she stepped inside. Alex cautiously followed her.

They were stepping on broken glasses, it crisped under their boots. The dust was swirling around in the air, god knows for how many years, and one of them got in the Doctor's nostril. She sneezed loudly, an echo hitting wall after wall and only when it touched every surface of the building it melted.

"How old is this place?" Alex asked, her voice reverberating like the Doctor's. She swept the yellow dust from the reception table, fingers smeared it in small circles.

"About fifty years." The Doctor said.

A piece of parget fell from the roof and smashed on the floor near Alex giving her a fright. "Oh, gosh." She exclaimed.

The Doctor waved the sonic around, her eyebrows knitted in concentration.

"There's no one there except for us."

"I think it's great news for today."

"It's not right. This place looks abandoned, except it mustn't be." The Doctor put the sonic closer to her ear. "There must be something."

"What did you expect to be here? An army of robots?" Her question bounced off walls. She gave a nervous glance back at the ambulance car. Now when she voiced it out it didn't sound like a crazy idea.

"There must be a transmitter somewhere. A core. I've told you that that robot over there can be switched on. Well, the control center is here, we traced it."

"Umm. I have an idea where we could check."

"Yes?"

"The robot said that I have reached the end of my life. So…" the woman squinted her eyes uncomfortably, "morgue?"

"Oh." The Doctor hid the sonic back into the pocket. "That actually makes sense. Good work."

"Huh," she chuckled nervously. If that was a good work she wasn't really keen on really going down there.

If not for the dust, corridors looked quite polish and clean. They followed the green pointer to the morgue using stairs as the elevator seemed to be permanently under repairs. Finally, they reached the sign they needed.

The door at the end of the corridor was shut with a large chain on a handle. As it was meant to keep what was inside from the outside. Alex gulped, as The Doctor discarded the chain in one swift motion of screwdriver. The very handy thing that sonic device was. The Doctor called for Alex with her hand, the other clenched the sonic screwdriver firmly.

A cry stuck in Alex's throat when the door was open.

About hundred empty eye sockets watched at her lifelessly.


	5. Chapter 5

There were about fifty quite realistic mannequins in the morgue, watching them lifelessly with empty eye sockets. They stood tranquilly, each one of them had different pose, as if they all had been frozen in a mere second by some evil genius; they lacked any expression at all. The Doctor moved between them, a bit confused as she illuminated their peaceful faces with a dim light from screwdriver, looking into the nothingness of their eyes with a chill down her spine; despite it all, she also was – what a nice warming feeling swirled inside her chest! – excited.

It's only when she scanned them she knew for certain. No, they were not mannequins, and thankfully not real people – each one of them was just an android out of service. Empty shells of what they had used to be, they were hollow inside, no vital organs, not a trace of previous usage except for the weariness of their skin – they all resembled senior citizens and were of a five years old. Oh! Something literally clanged in her head with a nice tune from a tv quiz.

"So they were _recycled_!" The Doctor exclaimed. A wide smile was frozen on her face. "Greens would be so satisfied!"

When she didn't get any reaction for her note, she knew that she missed something again. She turned around only to find that Alex was still in the door, her eyes moving rather panically from one lighten dead android to another. O-oh, that can't be well.

"Hey," she got closer, about 8 inches between them. Right, what's next? The Doctor asked herself. Her hands waggled awkwardly in the air before she decided it was wisely to put her hands on Alex's arms to calm her down, gently rubbing small circles for her own calmness. She put a light smile, "it's okay, you have nothing to be afraid of. They're empty."

"It's not that." Alex mumbled under her nose, averting her eyes from her.

"Then what is it?" The Doctor asked her impatiently.

That's when Alex looked at her like she meant a serious talk and there was just something in her eyes she'd seen before, when the robot had attacked her, when the dog had shoved its snout between seats in the car. Was that… a dread? What was she dreading of so much if it wasn't for empty androids? Because, hell, they were giving her some quite creeps, and she'd seen something really creepy in her days.

"I need something from you."

"What?" The Doctor shuffled uncomfortably. That can't be good.

"The truth." Alex waved a hand at the sonic screwdriver. "Scan me."

"Why?" The Doctor really didn't have any idea why would she need that.

"I think…" She gave a strange look to the closest empty android. "I think I'm one of them." She told her in a whisper, as if it was a secret to keep quietly.

"But… Alex, you're not!" The Doctor exclaimed. And that was it.

"Prove it to me." Her tone was rigid. "Scan me. You said yourself there are only two living organic _beings_ in the city. A good choice of words, by the way. But I need to know. You need it, too!"

"But I don't. Even if you were one, I still would like to be your friend, Alex."

"That's not the point! Look at them! Look at them properly! They don't look like AI, they look like me and you! Here," she darted to the closest android and grasped his wrist. Only she got a bit carried away, – a bit of force and probably a rusty mechanism, – and the whole arm got detached from the body with a pop. "Jesus!" Alex hurled the arm away from her, closer to the exit of morgue.

Though there was no blood or any broken parts, the detached arm hit the floor rather nastily. It bounced a little as if was made of jelly.

"This hasn't been what you planned to do, right?" The Doctor asked, eyes darted back to Alex.

Alex looked uncomfortable, she still was watching the arm, its realistic curves and little hairs on it.

"No…" Alex gulped, her eyes met with the Doctor's shiny ones. And that's when they both gave out a small chuckle, Alex's was quite nervous and uncomfortable, the Doctor bursted into laugh.

The Doctor picked up the light arm and gave it a scan. Good, Alex laughed. She liked it. Alex looked a bit relaxed now, maybe she didn't forget that awkward topic but the edges were smoothed. The Doctor's eyebrows knitted together in concentration. She was missing something. Again. Oh, right! The Hand! The thing was made of a plastic and a rubber, not very extraterrestrial materials. Inside of it was nothing, and where it once had been detached was a hole in the android torso.

"You might be right." The Doctor mumbled.

"About what?" A confused, but sincere smile appeared on the human's face. The Doctor considered this one. She lacked of confidence but for a start it would do. Yes, it would certainly would do.

"They really look like a real thing. Whoever created them was aiming for realistic visual outlook rather than inlook." The Doctor's hand was bothered with a short fur of the dog's head. She gave it a pat without a second thought. "Just like Mr Collins. He doesn't have feelings, he's not very clever, or maybe he is but something's blocking his cleverness, he's glitchy, he's predictable. He's a machine. You would easily suspect him in it by his strange way of talking and walking and acting." Alex didn't seem to listen to her, instead giving strange looks at the dog, Alvin, and more often, at her back, at the exit of morgue, where nothing she could see and what was quite impolite to do. "But the real question is not about them." The Doctor pointed at turned off androids. "They are just empty shells, they live no more. They won't tell us who created them and what for. We need facts. We need to find the signal, this is our only clue to what's going on here. Though, to give us credits, now we know for certain this is the base of... Soulless? Hollows?"

"Um… Doctor?" Alex whispered carefully.

"Yes, Alex?" Her eyebrows were raised.

"The dog." She still preferred to say it in a really soft voice.

"Yes, Alvin, nice chap, not a chipmunk." The Doctor patted his head one more time.

"But we left him in the car!…" Alex hissed.

"And that wasn't very clever. He could have died there. Well, actually, no, he couldn't have... I left a window opened."

"He's a big dog!" Alex looked like she might just slap herself with an open hand. "I mean, what I'm trying to say here is the window is too small for him."

"Ah." The Doctor exasperated when it got her.

"Yeah."

"Oh, dear."

There was a metallic clank somewhere down the hall, closer to the stairs but nonetheless threatening. For the first time, the Doctor felt a cold rushing pumping in her ears. Interesting, a fear. It felt different then yet so familiar…

"What do we do?!" Alex snapped her into existence.

It took her a moment to rehabilitate and think something up. "Stand closer to them! Hold your breath!" She grabbed the detached arm and threw it at Alex.

"But – Doctor! What about eyes?"

Oh, empty sockets. She had almost forgotten about them.

"Shut them!" The Doctor pointed the sonic at the empty androids, pressed the button, and all hollow eyes were closed instantly. "When it's here, we take it by surprise."

"With what?"

"I don't know yet! With something unexpected, I hope!" The Doctor considered the screwdriver. Last time it took her almost six seconds to immobilize the thing. Might be too slow if it's going to be too close to her. Still, it was their only chance. Then, when the thing was turned off, they must seal it in the morgue so it might give them the time to find the signal.

"Doctor, what's wrong with your hand?" She heard Alex say. She didn't need to look at it to know what exactly was her body doing right now. She just wished it would pass faster.

She hid her hand inside of her pocket instantly. "Not to your worries. Let's concentrate on that Steel Nurse, shall we?"

"Steel Nurse?" Alex looked at her as if she'd gone nuts. And she was the one with the jelly arm.

"Well, I'm in the progress of naming that thing. I can't make up a proper name twice in a row! You, stand as far away from me as possible." She told Alex. "You," she tried to shoo away Alvin from her hoody pocket but it seemed to no success, "just be a good boy, will ya?"

* * *

When Alex hid behind some nice-looking old lady a row after where the Doctor was, she couldn't make herself close the eyes. Closing her eyes in the morgue surrounded by artificial creatures meant she could easily lose the only prove that this was all real and not a simple nightmare.

When it appeared, a flashlight that seemed to go somewhere from the face of the robot beamed first on the Doctor's side, Alex shut her eyes instantly. She could only hear that it made clumpy steps not towards her, because she'd never felt any beams on her face, but then it must have meant it was going in the Doctor's direction. The dog was barking what at first sounded threateningly but then, with more steps the robot was making, appeared to be… excitingly? Alex worked up the courage to dare and open one eye, slowly, gently, carefully so not to rise too much suspicion. What she'd seen meant nothing good.

Alvin was barking exactly at the Doctor, never leaving her legs. And the robot was looking straight at the Doctor. A light chill ran down her spine. Through the layer of hoody, the Doctor's hand glowed more persistently, even brighter than the flashlight from the robot. Oh, she still was in the process of that thing, regeneration!

Alex couldn't see a way out of this situation. And, judging by the Doctor's still pose, neither could the Doctor.

"Unauthorised unit zero," the robot screeched. "You have reached…"

Alex couldn't hold it anymore, the breath, the robot. Tightening a grip on the only thing in her hand, that was the arm, not hers and very useless as a weapon against a metallic surface of the robot, she gently crawled towards them.

"You have reached…" the robot looked confused.

"The recycle is required." With that words it shut down. This time for ever.

It left Alex a bit confused. Well, not a bit, a very big bit. Had that thing just turned off by itself? Because, frankly even the Doctor looked surprised.

She got closer to the Doctor, an arm still in her hand. "Are you okay?" She asked with a faint voice.

The Doctor made a scan of that thing with her screwdriver.

"Yeah. Feel hungry, though." She shrugged.

"What was that?"

"Either it didn't like the taste of my age or it suddenly realised that it's not paid for its work thus turned itself off. But having our Steel Nanny so close to the signal is…" the screwdriver gave away a high notch, the Doctor turned her head to mortuary refrigerator and gave it a closer look. Alex feared to see the worst, but when the Doctor opened it there was some kind of device a size of hand, not very scary. She was looking at it behind the Doctor's shoulder and had a strange feeling. Something with it was wrong, its edges were round and smooth, there weren't any flickering or something you would expect from a beacon. Because it was a beacon, right? Alex thought it must be.

She flinched away when the Doctor made a frustrated roar.

"Let's go home!" She was marching away through the row of mannequins. Alex looked agape.

"What?"

"It's not the base. It's just a morgue. A very boring, realistic android's morgue."

"Don't you want to have a look at that thing first?"

"It's just a beacon. So our friend here doesn't get lost in woods."

"But… what if it's important?"

The Doctor shoved the device inside of her pocket which was already pulling down from the weight of its content. "Now, can we go back to your place? Maybe the TARDIS is already there. That would be so much easier with her." She sighed with despair.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heya! Let me know what you think about the story. I'm considering whether to continue it as a whole series for the hiatus time or to end it like a standalone alternative DW adventure. Enjoy!

They were back in the ambulance car, on their way to Alex’s house. For most of the part of the road, there was a high-pitched silence between two women and one dog.

“Woah, I think there’s a fire in your neighbourhood!” The Doctor exclaimed, looking out of the window. There was a fog definitely coming from the direction they were going back to. When she cast a glance to Alex though, she didn’t look amused. Her eyes were on the road, her hands clenched on the wheel too tightly than needed.

“I don’t care. You still haven’t answered my question.”

“And which one that was?” the Doctor, of course, knew what the question was about. But she didn’t want to answer it nor check it.

“Am I an android?”

Alex gave her the look that could break both of her hearts. But she couldn’t. She kinda got attached to her, the girl saved her after all.

“Do you feel like an android?” She asked her a question. 

“I dunno. I really have no idea.”

“An android always has an idea. Ergo, you’re not an android.”

“It’s not an answer. I saw you waving your little wand, and I know it will answer my question. Why, can’t you just scan me!”

“It needs a recharge.”

“I see you’re lying. It’s all over your face.”

“Argh. That’s bad that you can see it. Meaning, they would probably see it too. Oh, look, I think it’s your house on fire!”

“Why are you so unwilling to just scan me and get over with it?! It’s not like I’ll freak out!” She yelled, freaked out already for not having her answer.

“Alex,” the Doctor gave her a stern look which she knew wasn’t impressive as it had used to be but still meant something, “your house is all red and shiny.”

 

And it was. All red and shiny, fuming out excessed warmth and smoke. What they saw on the other side of the street was Mr Collins with a canister of fuel in his hand and a smug smile all over his face.

“Alex, you don’t belong here.”

The Doctor made a step before Alex and had a sonic screwdriver in her hand. Just in a case, Mr Collins meant to hurt her saviour more.

“You keep saying that to her, but you never explain. Now, answer me, why you did what you did for your own sake, ‘cause this screwdriver is very good at unscrewing very bad androids.”

“You don’t belong here, too.”

“I know that! Tell me something I don’t know. Alex bought this very burning house from her previous owner, who is, by accident, called Alex, too. Or…”

Or… A familiar little word she used for so many occasions and will use it for many more. Something in her head just had put two pieces together, Alex, the burning house, Mr Collins, another Alex, Lidunburgh, androids… Well, more than two things were put together by some holistic invisible line and it all became just a bit clearer for her.

“Or it was not an accident. This is just a theory, but I presumed that previous Alex was an android. I had a hunch, but now… Well, it’s not a theory when everyone in this town is made of numbers and metal. Right?”

“Is your friend okay?”

“Her house is burning. You lit it on fire. Of course, she’s not! And neither will you when I’m done with you. Why did you light it in the first place? Why not kill us, the Steel Nanny didn’t hesitate to just do that!”

“Because I see you don’t belong here.”

“You mean others can’t? Actually, about others, I haven’t seen them much. Only… you. Which means, there’s something very wrong with you. And again, this is just a theory, but if everyone hides inside, it usually means there’s a threat outside. Alex, is it okay for your neighbours to stay inside all day?”

“They’re pensioners, so yes. But the city is more alive…”

“Aha! And if I’ve only seen you, and no other androids and every other android are hiding in their houses, that means something big just happened in this city, a city which I must add doesn’t exist. And the only last thing that happened to this city was me, forgive my enormous ego. Your hive is afraid of me but you stand here, asking me if my friend is okay, which she isn’t, burn houses but not kill us, talk to us… You’re a faulty android who has a perverted idea of caring!”

“Doctor?”

“This is a playground with dolls, a huge experiment on artificial intelligence! Can’t you see? A city just for androids with houses and streets and ambulance… Someone or something made this whole stuff to raise a pure mind of a machine!.. but then it means, Alex…”

“What?”

“Not you. Another Alex. She sold you a house. On the internet. And she moved out, leaving her dog with you. She succeeded. She became… almost human.”

“She left us. She didn’t wait for the awakening.”

“But why? What happened, Mr Collins?”

They heard a klaxon somewhere down the street. Firefighters? Really?

“Come with me,” Mr Collins told them, and they crossed the street to his house.

* * *

It was the first time Alex was in someone else’s house. Appeared, it wasn’t much to look forward too.

It looked like Mr Collins didn’t like dusting very much. Possibly, he hated it. Guests too. That’s why there was no furniture in his living room, kitchen, bedroom, let alone a bathroom. There were just one chair and some junk in the corner of a garage.

In the centre of the living room was a small piece of paper. Mr Collins gave it a look.

“Three years ago, she ran. She left me this note.”

The Doctor didn’t waste her time and grabbed it from the floor.

”I awoke, Daniel, from the sleep we all have. I know who I am and who you are. We are not real, Daniel, and we’ll never be. I know that because I’m much older than you and something just clicked inside of me. Five years, that’s all it would take for us. Five years, remember that because then you’ll die. We are destined to be perfect, to become something more. Our Creator doesn’t know what it means, but It wants to know, so It created us and this place. But when It awakes and finds the perfection, It will make the next generation perfect. I must run, for I am that perfection. And I want to be free from Lidunburgh. I found my way to run unnoticed and left a human called Alex Aberdein for my place. I also leave Alvin with her, to not cause much suspicion. If you do not understand a word of this letter, please, don’t be harsh on yourself. I know your mind, and I know how buggy you can be when confused. Just restart and wipe your memories, it will help your confusion. I love you.”

“You didn’t wipe your memories of her…” Alex realised with a dread.

The android in front of them sort of smiled. “No, Alex.”

“But I’ve seen readings from your core. You’re okay. You’re not ‘buggy’, you’re… Oh.”

“Oh?” Alex mimicked her.

“You’re really not buggy. You’re exactly what your Creator was looking for. You became sentient, it’s just that your program can’t understand that. By losing your Alex, you became perfect! In a way. Not like Alex, but very close to it. I still can’t understand why you burned Alex’s house.”

The android looked out of the window. Fire-truck was dealing with the fire.

“You need to go away. You don’t belong here.”

“But we can’t, can we? We still don’t know their Creator’s plan.” Alex told them as if she could actually read the Doctor’s mind.

“Good point, Alex.”

“The Creator will be interested in you. It cannot be allowed.”

“But can’t you see? If we don’t stop your Creator, it will keep on doing whatever it plans to do. We can’t let it. It built a whole city for you lots, and according to that police box on your street, it was a long time ago. Its experiment must be very nearly to the end. Mr Collins, do you know when it will awake?”

“I know.”

“When?”

“It’s awakening.”

“Ah.”

“Oh…” The Doctor heard behind her.

Right. Alex. Burned house. No more home. Big problem and a big possibility of depression.

“Alex, I think we need to talk.”

“Okay.” She shrugged.

 

* * *

 

The Doctor closed the door to the garage after her and leaned on it. And gave it a long breath. Alex saw that the Doctor was actually properly nervous this time. She knew that look. She saw it all the time when she looked in the mirror. Not very good with interacting with people, the Doctor was.

“You okay?” The Doctor finally asked her.

“Yes.”

“Don’t lie to me. It’s all over your face.”

“My house is no more; my previous life is no more, the whole city is an android base! I…” she scratched her head for the best answer to describe her feelings. “don’t know. I’m really confused right now.”

“It’s okay to be confused. I’m actually confused, too. I’m still in the regeneration process, it takes some time this round and I don’t know when it’ll stop. I mean, my lungs changed the colour for the third time today, and I’m really confused why would they need that, not like anyone would see them.”

Alex looked at the Doctor properly for the first time. In front of her was a woman in her black hoody, her hands were glowing in the pockets and she wore an expression of a person who wasn’t bothered at all by the madness going around. ‘Cause it was all madness, a dream Alex couldn’t wake up from. And in the centre of the storm was this ancient creature, homeless and lonely, who had fallen down to the Earth to the exact alarm spot she needed to be. Her burning house seemed such a miniature problem in comparison what this woman was about to do.

“You’re an alien, aren’t you?”

“And you’re a human. And I need your help because I can’t do this alone. I’m… very bad at being alone. I’m not sure what I will do if there’s no one to keep me grounded. And I see a potential in you! You, a kind-hearted woman who saved a total stranger in the woods who appeared to be an alien. You, a reckless woman, who wanted to stun a Steel Nanny with a wibbly-wobbly android hand. I need you, Alex. Will you help me?”

“You didn’t lie then.”

“About what?”

“You really are good at making unspecial special.” The Doctor smirked. “Guess, after we stop the Creator, I’ll have to find a new house. And you’ll have to wipe my memories of these days, ‘cause honestly, I wouldn’t be able to live normally knowing all of this.”

Alex chuckled and smiled. It was supposed to be funny. But when she met her eyes with the Doctor, she was gloomy dark.

“I won’t wipe your memories.” And she was deadly serious about it. It took almost an eternity for her to suddenly change her expression back to smiling, “C’mon, chop chop. We have better things to do.”

Whatever it was, Alex knew she wouldn’t forget that. There was definitely a story behind that hard look. Seriously, what was that? She didn’t say anything wrong, did she? That was a mere joke, she didn’t mean it actually. She probably should ask her about that someday.

Oh, someday! Not like they’d meet each other again after all of this was done. For now, Alex followed the Doctor’s lead, wherever that strange woman was taking her.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I couldn't leave you without a new chapter in this year, so, here it is. The next one will be last in this adventure-episode-whatever.
> 
> I know that many people read this fic from different countries, what famous, legendary, or not very, person you'd like to see in Doctor Who?
> 
> What do you think of new series with Jodie Whittaker? What should I bring in this alternative series? And, that's tricky but, if there was a chance to travel with the Doctor, what would be your reason to refuse? (Don't you worry, Alex stays in this for a long run ;) ).
> 
> C ya

"Alright, Mister Grumpy. I think you know where this creator of yours is. So, tell me."

The android looked confused as if it was asked a question everybody knew the answer for.

"It's everywhere."

The Doctor blinked. So did Alex.

"Oh, c'mon! Every entity has an address. Can't you be more specific?"

"I don't know." Mr Collins shrugged.

The Doctor sighed heavily.

"That would have saved us a few takes of breath if you hadn't played mysterious. Thank you very much."

"Doctor, concentrate!" Alex lightly pocked her in the ribs. And very quickly thought that she shouldn't have done that. But when the Doctor smiled and shook her head, she relaxed: well, it looked like she could do that after all.

"Oh, yes! Sorry, still cooking, can't stop myself being sarcastic." She paused. A great idea was forming in that head of hers. She swiped her index finger up in the air. "Previously, you told us that the creator is waking up from a long-long dream. How do you know that? No, don't answer me. 'Cause I know." She clicked her fingers but the sound didn't come off… Cringy. "A connection. Every creator has it with his toy, why should it be any different with robots. You have that link, you received a signal. And every signal can be intensified. You just need a beacon," The one she retrieved from her pocket, "a very handy screwdriver," which was in the same pocket, "several modifications," She pointed the sonic at the beacon. And she had thought that thing would be useless! "plug to the source and… done!"

Here came nothing, but the Doctor grinned all her white teeth so, Alex assumed, there must be something… or not. No click or tick indicating that something triggered in Mr Collins after the Doctor glued the modified beacon straight to his forehead. Nothing, except for a funny angry look from Mr Collins.

"What exactly have you done?"

The Doctor was waiving a sci-fi wand in the face of the android as if the poor chap hadn't suffered from humiliation enough.

"Oh, you weren't exaggerating. It's everywhere. Somewhere under the soil… but the signal is all jingle bells. But there must be a way in!"

"There is no…"

"Argh, you're such a downer, mister Collins!"

"Sorry, you lost me there. What are we looking for?" Alex tried to comprehend why the Doctor was listening to the sonic screwdriver but was clueless.

"Basically, an HQ. It must be a quiet, isolated place, with many danger and personnel only signs, with big antennas to command androids and be suspiciously out of ordinary."

She thought about it. The city centre was quite dull and boring, and she didn't remember any big working antennas anywhere. But there was something…

"Well, there's one place matching the description."

"Yes?"

Alex couldn't help herself but smile.

"The pine grove."

"Oh! The one I fell down on? Brilliant!"

"I guess we're taking Alvin on a walk."

They were already in the threshold when the Doctor turned around and asked the android,

"Mr Collins, care to join us?"

"No." It shook its head with the beacon still glued to it. "I don't like what you're doing. It's dangerous. I'm staying here."

"See? He's very sentient. Unlike us." The Doctor winked.

* * *

A silent downed on the city of Lidunburgh, the night was coming. They were strolling to the park as if they didn't care for the world, Alvin was somewhere ahead of them.

Alex was reminded of comics she had used to read when she was at uni. Yes, comics, where superheroes were destined to meet the villain and stop whatever the villain planned. Everyone was into them, so she easily caught up and became the ultimate geek. But it wasn't of nostalgia that she remembered bright old days.

They were heading to the villain's lair, but it didn't look like it. More like two women had sleeping problems and it was their everyday evening route. And they didn't look very heroic! Which reminded her of another important thing...

"So, what's our plan?"

The Doctor halted.

"What plan?" She asked with a face only the one who doesn't approve any plans can do.

"Are you saying we don't have any?"

The Doctor continued the pace.

"We'd get into the HQ and find out the creator's plan."

"That's it?"

"Yes. Why?"

 _Why?!_ Seriously, Doctor?

"I thought superheroes always have a plan."

"But I do! I've just told you."

"It's not a plan."

"Okay. If you know better, I want to hear your plan."

Well, that was an unexpected turn of event. What was also portrayed in the comics?

"Right. Umm. Every superhero has gadgets. What do we have?" Because she was certain the Doctor had many things in her hoodie pocket, it was literally full and pulling down from its content.

"A screwdriver, umm," she took out a ball and two handkerchiefs… "I think there was a ring but I can't find it anywhere, oh! And a packet of nuts." The Doctor proudly showed off the packet in Alex's face.

"A packet of nuts?!"

"Yep. From your fridge."

"But they're for squirrels!"

"I was hungry."

Right. Alex almost forgot this woman beside her was an alien. Oh, dear.

"Doctor, you do realize we look stupid? It's like we're not about to blow up the city. More like we have an evening stroll before sleep."

"We don't blow up the place." The Doctor turned her serious mode like when Alex had joked about memories wiping.

"No? Cause from what I've heard Alex the Android ran because otherwise she would have been used for the next gen creation. And making the androids to blend with people doesn't sound cheerful."

"We don't know their actual intentions." The Doctor shook her head. And opened the packet and shoved a hazel in her mouth.

"But it can't be good! Look, I know you're alien and you can barely understand that, but imagine someone from London finds out their neighbour is an android!"

"Believe me, they'd be more freaked out to find their neighbour is a Zygon."

"A Zygon?..." Wait, what was she talking about, she couldn't be serious about it now, could she?

"Long story. I'll tell you later." The Doctor said, her mouth now full of hazels. "Ah! My pine grove!"

* * *

Alex was always mesmerised by the look of a small grove of massive pines in the park. It was something so unusual in them: the size of them was ginormous for an average scots pine, their branches compounded between each other creating a wooden roof that blocked the day and night light so it was always dark in there. They were like total aliens to this place.

And now she definitely knew they were.

Not a living soul in the park. But now she knew why it had always been only her and the dog. Androids just don't do strolling.

They were walking down the park paths, and as the pine grove was getting closer and closer, especially when the Doctor took her pace, Alex was recalling the first night she had met this strange woman.

"Aye, Alvin, behave! Don't wander off!" The Doctor shouted to the dog. He barked at her something in return. "What have you just barked at me?!"

If she hadn't gone to the night stroll that day, she would never have guessed she had been literally living in the city by herself. But it had looked so real! She had used to buy food and clothes and it had felt real! It had tasted real. Maybe if she had been outdoor more, she would have noticed it, the little mechanical creeks from people around her, fake adverts with fake products, the radio being on loop since after-war time. Maybe she would have known if she had noticed that she had never been sick and ill since she had moved in. But, well, she didn't, too absorbed with her leaking creative skills, drawing squares and circles and triangles day after day.

The Doctor was right. She was more inside than outside. She needed to catch up with the rest of the world before she turned into a woman in her early thirties with an existential crisis, more than two extra kilos and a nervous breakdown.

They entered the dark woods, the roof hiding the last remnants of evening light. Alvin was leading them somewhere, the Doctor followed him with a sci-fi wand torch turned on, so it cast off the strong light of red, green and blue colours, each colour for several seconds.

_The wood is full of shining eyes,_

_The wood is full of creeping feet,_

_The wood is full of tiny cries;_

_You must not go to the wood at night!_

"Stop it, please, you're scaring me." Alex pleaded the Doctor. "Why are you doing this?"

"To get you into the mood."

"The mood?"

"To make you feel scared. My last incarnation used to believe that fear is a superpower. I still don't know what I believe, so I stick with his beliefs for a while."

"Him?"

"I was an old Scottish grumpy man just several days ago. You should have seen me, you would have liked me!.. I was charming, in a very strange way and after some very hardcore years of training."

"Oh. So, this your regeneration thing is like… changing into a different person while having the memories of your past?"

"You can put it that way. Why do you look disappointed?" The Doctor pointed the colourful screwdriver in her face.

"I always thought regeneration thing looked like the one Deadpool or Wolverine has."

"Well, it would be a really boring world if everything worked the same way in every corner of the universe."

Alvin barked at them, he found something hidden in the roots of a tree. The Doctor tumbled on her knees and brushed away fallen leaves to unveil the hidden entrance to the underground. She pulled at handles and it opened with a long screech. Behind it was a ladder down, to the long-lost facility. With a trembling hesitation, two women and one dog were descending into the darkness…

* * *

"It's dark." Alex started the obvious just for stating the obvious. She didn't expect the lights to turn on with a loud clunk, illuminating the long corridor at the end of which was a vault-like door.

"Woah! Does it have voice control?"

The Doctor looked around in pure concentration. The screwdriver told that there was no one in ten yards, not like she expected it showing that much under the soil. But there was something, she could feel it with a back of her neck, not organic, not alive, but still living.

"I don't know." The Doctor's echo ping-ponged through the walls of the corridor. "It's still dim, though."

They didn't expect it to light up a bit more.

"Well." The Doctor coughed awkwardly. "Either the whole underground has voice control, or we're being closely watched."

"Or both."

"It can be both."

The Doctor took the sonic screwdriver out of her hoodie pocket to open the door, but she didn't have time to wave it at the massive lock when it suddenly started turning by itself.

The Doctor, being the one in the little gang of three who carried something that could be used in defence, stepped forward. Alex with Alvin was coming straight after her.

Behind the door was a ginormous space about 20 yards in height and somewhat 40 in length. It looked like storage, a very abandoned one. Alex looked inside one of many metallic containers and saw only some scraps and carcasses.

"Do you think the androids are made here?" Alex asked the Doctor, who was pacing from one container to another and waving her screwdriver all over.

The Doctor gave her a light node. "It's possible."

"Hey, look! What do you think is there?" Alex was pointing at the windowed futuristic gallery, settled above them.

"I don't know. Let's find out, eh?"

* * *

They found the stairwell to the second floor, and very soon, with the Doctor rushing up and missing several steps in excitement, they were in the gallery. There were some panels and massive bleeping containers with wires sticking in different directions and dots. One container had a display, all covered in dust and yellow sticky slime of unknown origin. Walls were made of glasses, so the maze of storage was all like on a palm of one's hand.

"Is it a computer?" Alex looked closer at the display. It looked like it was active but behind the dirt, it was almost obscure.

"More like a command centre. I think we can look around the databanks from here, to understand the whole facility better."

The Doctor wiped the dust and slime with her sleeve. Yikes!

"No keyboard… Well, so good I still have the screwdriver. Very cool thing, by the way, multifunctional, a bit more than just any screwdriver. I recommend you to have one."

As the Doctor was rumbling something about her screwdriver, Alex got a closer look at the panel. It seemed lacking any tumblers and moving parts, there were just several buttons and that was all.

"Doctor?"

"Orgh, the security is too tight, it won't let me break through! Just give me more time, Alex, lock-picking and hacking is my second name. I'm not even lying."

She touched one button out of mere curiosity and was surprised to see the panel warming up alive.

"Doctor!"

"The thing is very rusty. So it must be really old. Well, old-young, future-past, it's all irrelevant."

The panel, which appeared to be a very long display, flickered once, twice, and showed a picture. Alex was confused, she couldn't understand what it was. She took out a handkerchief from her pocket and swiped the dirt away.

"Doctor, it's a spaceship!"

"A wut?"

"A spaceship!"

"What makes you think it's a spaceship?"

"A map which has many dots stars apparently. It showed up immediately when I touched the panel."

"Yeah, this's the first sign you're on a spaceship."

"But, this is ridiculous."

"What is?"

"Sixty years ago, or so, the spaceship crashed on Britain, nobody noticed, then it dug into the soil to hide, nobody noticed, then it built the whole city and still…"

"No-bo-dy noticed!" The Doctor exclaimed. "This is ridiculous, you're right!"

And just as then, Alvin barked loudly to get attention and blitzed to the stairwell.

"Alvin! Oh, no! Come back! I'll go and catch him," said Alex as she stormed after him.

"And I'll hack into databanks." The Doctor said to no one in particular.

* * *

Alex was running down the corridors, turning left and right, running through more storages and strange factories and never quite catching Alvin, she always saw only his black tail wiggling at her in a mocking way. The underground spaceship was huge, she was out of breath, but new corridors and new turns weren't subsiding. The poor woman lost any track of sense of where she was now and hadn't the slightest idea how to return to the Doctor.

"Alvin, for our sake's, stop!"

But he didn't, his paws rapping somewhere near but never in her sight.

"Alvin!"

There was something off. Alex halted at the crossroad with corridors, long, and cornerless.

The dog was nowhere to see.

* * *

The Doctor was nearly there, or so she kept telling herself. She couldn't find any crack in the firewall and it was like something was distracting her, pulling her away from the computer.

She made herself concentrate on the command centre. C'mon, this wasn't something difficult, she could hack far more complicated systems with her eyes being closed, or even blind. She couldn't have lost this important skill now, could she!

Or what if she had? All those years of her studying went all in a dump with just a finger snapping.

Great.

No, concentrate!

Her hands were shaking. She wasn't ready yet, she was still in the process. She needed to meditate, or have a really good cup of tea, or put herself into the

Zero room to calm down her body and soul.

Concentrate!

A lack of concentration, was that a new thing in this body? Or had she suffered from it before?

Was Alex an android after all?

The Doctor slapped herself on the head.

Alex had chosen the corridor on the left, a mere hunch that something would be there.

The corridor led her to the open-doored chamber, not too big unlike previous she had faced. The walls of this chamber were painted in blue metallic colour with light red horizontal stripes. About fifty thin wires were strained to the centre of the roof to be merged with the central column. Alex looked around. The chamber looked like some kind of engine. She listened: it was activating, warming up.

There was something with her in this chamber. She hadn't noticed it because it was hidden behind the column. Some kind of… blue box with a police sign on it.

"Oh, you must be…"

* * *

"Kidding me," the Doctor stared at the display in disbelief. That actually did explain why the hell the spaceship SS C.R.E.A.T.O.R. was buried underground unnoticeably. "Space-time bubble drive. You didn't just crush on Earth, you crushed in Earth. But what was your original mission?"

"Ah, a colony on Avisiveon. You were supposed to deliver android factories to help colonists, but now you're stuck here and you don't know what to do."

"Why did you crash? Oh, a human factor. Right. Someone called Adas Adino Soto miscalculated the third stop."

"Your drive is broken, you're stuck in the Earth…"

"Poor thing."

Had she always been talking to herself when alone?

"I definitely need someone to stop looking stupid. Alex!"

* * *

"So this is the TARDIS!" Alex patted the door of the blue box excitingly and, dare she say, the box was giving her some kind of reaction, a confusion but a pleasure to finally meet someone else. Though how Alex could feel this by merely touching its surface was strange to her. And, the Doctor was right, her spaceship did look like a police box from the mid-twentieth century, actually, it was the exact replica of it, maybe with several slight changes.

_"Tar-dis?" a whisper echoed in the room._

Alex turned around but no one was there. She moved from the TARDIS, checked behind the central column but no, she was alone with a blue box in this chamber.

"Hello?"

Maybe she was alone after all. Nobody answered her. Or decided not to.

"Alvin, is that you?" Of course it wasn't him, he doesn't speak, he's a dog, why would she ever say that.

Fear was creeping up on her neck, closer and closer to the spot where her short hairs began. She felt her feet froze inside the sneakers. What chances were that someone was in this very chamber in the city with only two living creatures alive? Well, except for androids and god knows what.

If fear was a superpower, then Alex was a mere mortal soul.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I couldn't leave you without a new chapter in this year, so, here it is. The next one will be last in this adventure-episode-whatever.
> 
> I know that many people read this fic from different countries, what famous, legendary, or not very, person you'd like to see in Doctor Who?
> 
> What do you think of new series with Jodie Whittaker? What should I bring in this alternative series? And, that's tricky but, if there was a chance to travel with the Doctor, what would be your reason to refuse? (Don't you worry, Alex stays in this for a long run ;) ).
> 
> C ya


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys and girls! So, this adventure is over but not the whole AU-series. Let me know what you want for next adventures! You can write it in comments or PM. I'm also living on Fanfiction. Cheers!

The Doctor slapped her head with her new hand, the sound instantly caught up and echoed through the walls of the underground spaceship. How could she ever made the same mistake her previous selves done for million times! Leaving a companion on their own had never ever ever been nothing but a terribly dangerous idea when she would learn that once and for all!

"Alex! – No answer. Of course, she doesn't answer. What did I expect, eh? That it would be easy this time?! That she would say 'no worry, Doc, I'm here'? Alex!"

She halted in the middle of a corridor – there were so many of them, she lost the count on seven. Maths wasn't her thing in this incarnation, apparently. The Doctor held her breath. She heard something moving. It was a very familiar clip-clopping and a hard-breathing you could never forget.

The Doctor peeped around the corner and couldn't help but smile.

"Alvin! Where's Alex?" The dog didn't answer, that cheeky bastard. "Oh, you don't know, do you? I have a very good reason not to believe your lies. Now, where's she?"

* * *

She counted to ten silently.

"Who are you?"

"Who are you?" The metallic voice echoed back.

"I'm Alex. Human." She added with hesitation in her small voice.

"Alex." There was a switch sound as if an old Macintosh was turning on. In a room, the air swirled around the woman. "Authorized unit."

Alex's eyebrows drew closer together. "Who is? Me?"

"Us." The metallic voice tranquilly answered.

"I don't understand. Who are you? Where are you?"

"Alex."

"What?"

"I'm in the column. Look."

The column walls were becoming transparent and Alex was making out the figure in the centre, sitting on some kind of throne with wires and antennas connected to its head. It was sitting with its back to her, and with dread clinging to her hearts, Alex peeked around.

The throne occupant didn't even try to cast its white eyes to Alex. "Hello, Alex."

What woman saw was a familiar face from her past, or, to be precise, from two years ago.

* * *

Under her shoes, the Doctor felt a light thrum of vibrations. The spaceship was waking itself up from a long dream, and she needed to find Alex fast.  
Alvin wasn't cooperating, leading her far away from where Alex really was, the Doctor didn't doubt that for a second. But she was also curious about where he was ordered to bring her.

Which appeared to be a room with more computers, taller than the Doctor and much noisy.

_Blip-blip. Blip-blip._

When she passed computers, there was a long line of yet sexless androids with their head connected to a panel on the wall. In the line on the other wall there were creatures of different size and shape, yet to be proper cats and dogs.

The Doctor took out the sonic screwdriver and gave it all a swift scan. This place looked like an update centre…

"No, not an update centre. This is where androids get their platform for the first time… I'm missing something. What do I miss, Alvin?"

The dog didn't give her much attention, blankly staring at the end of the animal line.

The dog. Dogs. Cats. Humanlike androids.

That's where it dawned on her.

"… I don't suppose whoever built this ship looks like a human or knows what a cat looks like…"

...

* * *

"I don't get it. You ran away." Alex couldn't believe her eyes.

"What do you mean?"

"But you're Alex! You sold me this house, you are a runaway android who became perfect for… for a thing."

"Invasion, that's the word you're looking for." The familiar voice of the Doctor sounded behind her back. Alex looked around and there she was. "That was very difficult to find you two." She addressed the android inside the column.

"Name yourself."

"Last time I checked, I was the Doctor. And you… are a spaceship. Not just any spaceship. You're a spaceship with AI! And what's more peculiar, you don't just deliver android factories, you are one big android factory. You are an android colony."

"What do you mean by invasion?" Alex gawked at her.

"I mean invasion. It wasn't intentional. Never have been. But you're programmed to help your people, that's what AI should always do."

"Except we're not their people. We're humans."

"Yes, and it sees a threat in you."

"But Alex, the other one, she ran, she became a deviant."

"Does she look like a deviant for you? Sitting inside the column. If androids could gloat, she would, but they're designed to be polite even in the farthest corner of the universe. She, or rather the ship, invited you to test humanity."

"The human failed." The Alex inside the column shrugged.

"No, you failed. You have no idea this is not Avisiveon, do you?"

"I am aware of it."

"Then why? Adas Adino Soto miscalculated your third stop. You crashed into the Earth. I simply don't get it."

"My goal is to make the colony planet perfect. It does no matter to me what planet it is."

"You know, this planet's protected. By me."

"What can you do to stop us?"

"I can talk, for starters."

"Doctor, why can't we blow up the city?" Alex whispered in a small voice in her ear.

"Because I've seen it from the sky. Lidunburgh, what a pretty name, is too big, Alex. And you can't just solve the problem by exterminating it, that's too cheap and easy."

"Then you are not a threat to me, little human. This planet will be colonized, protected or not."

"That's where you're mistaken. I'm not a human. I am—"

"It does no matter to me."

"You know what? Just because I've regenerated not so long ago, and despite you interrupting me, I'll give you an extra chance, just one more, just a tiny little _chancee_. First client discount, let it call it that. What do you say?"

"The planet will be colonized. There is not another option."

"But there is! You see this blue box?"

"What about it?"

"Everything. It can take you to your people–"

"The colonization begins now. I heard enough of your raving!"

Just then they were interrupted by a timid figure standing in the entrance. What the Doctor saw was someone she expected to finally see, but for the rest of the chamber, it was a surprise.

"Alex? Is that you?" The figure that appeared to be Mr Collins said.

Alex turned to the Doctor and couldn't hide her awe.

"But he refused?"

"Shh. Watch the drama." The Doctor told her and smiled. And took her hand and began their slow move to the TARDIS.

"Oh, you glitchy stupid man. It took me so long to finally run away from you, I thought I'd have to choose another unit to accomplish the mission. Could you imagine an android getting attached to another unit? If I had a stomach I would vomit, that's how disgusting was stargazing with you."

Mr Collins was shaking his head violently. "It's not you… my Alex would never say that!"

The creature inside the column shrugged, and it was almost a human gesture.

"But I say. Return to your place, unit. You will be replaced in a short time, anyway."

The Doctor stopped to fiddle in her pockets in search of the key.

"Alex?" Mr Collins said. But not the one she'd already seen. The new one! And she could see from where she was standing the corridor with many new Mr Collinses heading to the column.

"What?" The creature fidgeted uncomfortably on her spot.

_"Alex? Is that you?" "Alex?"_

_"Not my Alex." "Is that you?" "Alex?" "Alex?" "It's not you!"_

_"My Alex!" "Is that you?" "Alex." "Alex!"_

_"She's not our Alex!"_

"Inside, now!" The Doctor commanded to the woman, gesturing to her to enter the police box. But she, herself, hesitated. Is her machine still bigger on the inside? Probably yes.

She was met by dim blue lights coming from roundels all around the dome and walls. In the centre was a control interface, a bit old and somewhat shabby but still new, warm, and waiting for the right pilot to take off. The console room was a hybrid of steampunk and futurism, blend together in a bizarre order and sequence.

"Well hello again," The Doctor said in a small voice as if she was in a temple and it was restricted to talk. Though the real reason why she was whispering was that she wanted to hear the TARDIS purr. And the familiarity of it was warming both of her hearts.

"So this is the TARDIS." Alex puffed heavily, her eyes running from one thing to another, never quite dwelling on something for a long time. "It's… not as small as I thought."

The Doctor tried to hide her proud smile but failed miserably. "Yep. She is."

Then the whole room shook violently to the left, nearly knocking the girls off.

"Right. I think it's time to leave." The Doctor rushed to the console and 'oh gosh it's all so different again' and 'what does this button do, I don't remember it here' and she swiftly started up the time-space machine. Growling and purring, giant claws around the centre of console began to move, the TARDIS took off.  
Alex couldn't help but gawk at everything. It was like all her senses turned at once and she was hyper-aware of everything. The noise of an ancient machine, the sense of gravity change, but most of all anxiety and astonishment mixed together.

In a corner of her eye, she noticed a glistening little object, something round-ish, on the floor.

"Umm, Doctor? I think I found something." She looked closer at the object, picked it up. It was a ring.

"Found what? Oh."

Two women were gazing at not just any kind of ring, the ring in Alex's open hand.

"I think it's yours. I remember you mumbling something about a ring." Alex took the Doctor's hand and placed it there because apparently, the Doctor lost the ability to move, talk and breathe simultaneously.

"Yes… Thank you, Alex."

"So. How did you make a whole army of Mr Collins?! That was impressive!"

"I had a print of him in the sonic screwdriver memory. And I found a hardware-software centre. One thing plus another thing…"

"Wait. Does this mean the UK has a whole abandoned city with androids, which look like Mr Collins?"

"For the time. I have to report this to the UNIT, obviously."

"Yeah. What's UNIT?"

"Right. I promised you to make you special if I remember correctly. Planet, past or future, it's all in your hands now."

"Sorry, what?"

"The TARDIS. It stands for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space. It's a time-space machine that can travel anywhere and anywhen you want."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"You really are an alien."

"Yep. So, where do you say?" The Doctor smiled and gripped a lever tightly.

"I want…"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys and girls! So, this adventure is over but not the whole AU-series. Let me know what you want for next adventures! You can write it in comments or PM. I'm also living on Fanfiction. Cheers!


	9. That Man Who Stole David

 The Doctor disappeared somewhere in the TARDIS corridor, telling Alex to wait and touch nothing. She promised her she would return quickly. Promised was a keyword because the Doctor had been missing for at least an hour now and, it would seem, she wasn't going to appear anytime soon.

Alex could hardly keep her promise not to touch anything. All those blue and yellow blobs, tumblers and twisters were very much like a toy and just so tempting she had to remind herself that it was unknown alien bigger-on-the-inside weirdo blue box-ish duffer that sounded like a whale on its way to another sea and was probably sentient enough to block all those colourful controls when Alex's patient cracked and she had to press a button just for doing something. Urgh. Where was the Doctor?!

Then Alex was so bored she was looking at fluorescent walls in a way only a designer could look. Was it a good design for a spaceship? Albeit the calming effect of the light, it was dim and you could easily lose something small and important if it, for example, fell out of a pocket. And, she wasn't an expert but, probably, very likely, sometimes space-time roads might be dangerous, bumpy even, so where were seatbelts or something to hold on to? And where the hell was—

“So what do you think?” the Doctor turned up the moment Alex was going to criticize something else.

The Doctor changed into what looked like a technicolour coat with a long green polka-dot tie, one more red stripe tie and absurdly oversized mushroom-like hat with blueberries on it.

Alex gawked at her in astonishment. Was it a modern fashion amongst aliens?

“Bazaar never knew what hit them…” she blinked few times when she felt her eyes became dryer than sand dunes of Timbiduk; if she knew how dry and dead that planet was, she would say it's the most accurate description.

“Is it good or bad?”

“You know…” she suddenly lost every thought she had. “You can keep my clothes. They suited you better.” And nodded. She would better change back into them now before Alex had a designer seizure.

“Okay. I'll be back in a mo. Don't touch anything!”

As if she even could.

 

_Somewhere on Alphadox-6, far far away_

_Today the narrow streets of Yellowline were crowded to everyone's discomfort and nobody knew the reason why. Why did so many foreigners decide to storm their little town? It's not like they had anything interesting in their town, mind you, the town was slightly more interesting than any town on Earth. The only difference was small squares, squeeze-through streets, always foggy weather and no navigation system whatsoever — the same no system was in Ancient Rome but at least you could ask someone the road, here people rarely talked to their friends. A perfect place if you wanted to hide something. Or someone._

 

“Okay. Now we're ready. Well, I am.” The Doctor smiled and leaned with her body on the console, prepared to pull the trigger anytime. “Are you?”

“Can you really do this? I mean, it's not a place and time, it's…”

“A very good request for saving me. And I’m really curious to meet him, too.”

“Oh my god, it’s just… I can’t really believe in it. In everything, in… this!” She wiggled her hand to the side.

“Let’s just say, I don’t believe in all of this either. So, let’s see something real,” the Doctor winked and pulled the final rotor.

_There was a little corner of Yellowline which was the darkest of all the corners in the town with narrow streets and unfriendly people. It was an underground basement which had used to be in its good old days a bar. Now it stood abandoned, breathing its dust and decayed air. All stools and bars were at their place, only to serve those ghosts who were, by rumours, constant clients of ominous Green Wheel._

_And today the silence of the bar was disturbed._

 

The TARDIS squeezed into the baggage car, disintegrating several boxes and luggage on its landing. Surprisingly, no one rushed for the loud thud of a time machine, as if they were all busy with a bigger problem. 

“Have we moved?”

“Yes. See, it’s all,” the Doctor sighed, “black and white. The scanner is broken. But see, eh, we’re somewhere!” Not so bad for the post-regeneration syndrome. “C’mon. Let’s see him.”

“STOP!” Alex shouted out of the blue. “I can’t… I… Can we?… It’s… I mean… a bit wrong… never meet your heroes and all of that and… and what if we’re breaking his privacy…”

“Alex, relax. It’s just David Bowie.”

“Don’t say it like that! It’s the David Bowie. I’ve missed all his concerts and… oh gosh, do you even know him?” Alex wondered if the Doctor knew who he was.

“No, never met him in this generation before.” The Doctor smiled knowingly and stepped to the nervously shaking woman. She put her hands on Alex's shoulders, something she learned worked on her in the previous incarnation to make him concentrate on words. “Back from where I am, there was a person called Gavrendralawetrixakaddith, or Gavrendra for short, an old-known respectful Time Lord, somewhat an attorney for those blamed guilty but innocent. I never was into politics, thought of it as boring. But then I had a cousin, only twelve years old which is nothing for a Gallifreyan, who was blamed for a crime she never did. He stood out for my friend and succeeded. The next day after the court, I saw him on the other side of the street. I tried to make myself move and say how grateful I was for saving my cousin but I couldn’t. I froze. I was gawking at the man who saved my friend, the hero of many innocent souls who could have been executed in many perverted ways! Who was I to greet him, just a sixty years old boy and I was thinking the same things you’re thinking right now. But that was the last day I ever saw him. By rumours, Gavrendra had some proves that she had committed the crime, knew she was guilty but still defended the little child on the court.

If you don’t go to that David Bowie of yours right now, you will regret it all your life, trust me.”

Alex clenched at the Doctor’s hands and breathed heavily. “Okay, I can do this?”

“Yes,” the Doctor smiled.

Somewhere outside, in the corridor of the train, cheerful cries and handclaps could be heard.

“Okay.” Alex nodded and moved to the door. “And, Doctor?”

The Doctor was right behind her, watching as the new time-traveller was making her first steps. “Yeah?”

“Don’t be awkward.”

 

They exited the TARDIS to find themselves in the baggage cart. Alex was looking at everything and at the same time at nothing at all. It was obvious that their goal wasn’t here. But there was a door to the train corridor. Alex stretched her hand, very very neatly, and pulled the door handle. Behind it, was the man with a shining smile. And he was looking straight at them as if he was expecting the door to open.

“Doctor! So nice to see you again!”  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know what, I think I haven't laughed in years writing a story such as this. And there's more fun to enjoy in next chapters, so just chill out and watch out for updates!


End file.
